From Day One, back in September 2022, Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, has been all-in responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s call for the mobilization of 300,000 troops. By the end of that first month, even before the full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, Kadyrov said the republic had surpassed its volunteer target by 254%.
That trend has continued. In December 2023, Kadyrov reported a 1,500% increase in volunteers. By February 2024, that number reached 8,224%, with 36,000 soldiers, including approximately 16,000 volunteers deployed to Ukraine.
Yet all along, many have questioned the legitimacy of these numbers.
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Some volunteers hail from regions outside Chechnya, as previously reported. And human rights activists warn against a hidden mobilization within the republic. They cite instances where individuals are coerced into joining the conflict under threat of imprisonment or due to opposition views.
As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reaches its second anniversary, our reporters have taken on the Kadyrov regime’s forceful recruitment methods.
Evading mobilization
In September 2022, Dzhabrail (whose name has been changed for safety concerns) had been living in St. Petersburg for two years, pursuing his dream of residing and working in a bustling urban environment. Fighting was never part of his plan, so upon hearing Putin’s mobilization announcement, he promptly applied for a foreign passport.
“They gave my mother an ultimatum: either I go to fight, or they will take my brother.”
Shortly after, military personnel visited his address in Chechnya and attempted to serve a summons to his younger brother’s wife. They then approached his mother. “They gave her an ultimatum: either I show up at the military registration and enlistment office and go to fight, or they will take my brother,” Dzhabrail said.
The situation was resolved through a 300,000-ruble (,225) bribe to the military commissar. Dzhabrail was then able to secure a military ID and obtain a foreign passport. He subsequently left for Turkey and traveled through Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia, where he sought asylum. While his chances of receiving protection are slim, he remains resolute in his decision not to return home.
Dzhabrail said the situation is deteriorating in Chechnya. “Uncles, cousins, classmates, fellow students, neighbors in the city and village have gone elsewhere, so as not to go to war,” he said. But not everyone is successful in evading mobilization.
Not a game
In late November 2023, Kadyrov said that within a year and a half, Chechnya had sent 32,000 fighters to Ukraine. By February 2024, this figure has risen by 4,000 individuals.
“Recently, there’s been a surge in individuals being sent from the republic,” Dzhambulat Suleymanov, head of the Chechen United Force movement, told Important Stories.
Initially, those sent to Ukraine were members of Kadyrov’s personal army, equipped with modern equipment and well-tailored uniforms, showcasing their exploits on platforms like TikTok from relatively secure locations — areas already hit by air and artillery strikes where there were no Ukrainian forces. However, the situation turned when bodies of the dead started being brought back to Chechnya.
Initially, coercion accounted for 30% of enlistments. Now it’s nearly a 100%.
This shattered any illusions that this was a game. “Now we see them dying in the fields and trenches, without limbs, food, water or medical aid. This dampened the volunteer spirit,” Suleymanov said.
Subsequently, coercive tactics became prevalent, said a representative of Chechen opposition group NIYSO: “They catch people by planting drugs or a bag of substances, and giving them the choice: enlist or face imprisonment for two to five years.”
Initially, coercion accounted for 30% of enlistments. Now it’s nearly a 100%. Previously, individuals thought to be extremists and Islamists were not sent to war over fears of potential backlash. But they have begun to be deployed in recent months.
Mobilization as repression
“It was painful for Kadyrov to witness the loss of his close friends during the early weeks of the war,” Suleymanov said. ” So he started holding back his own people. Instead, he began dispatching individuals who had paid a high price for their exemption, willing even to commit crimes for it. This coercion escalated into forced mobilization. Lately it has been resurging.”
Each month, NIYSO representatives receive reports of 10 to 15 cases of Chechens being forcibly sent to war. Yet many more cases remain undisclosed. According to a public figure who wished to remain anonymous, most Chechens do not seek publicity out of concern for their families: “Even if one person has already been taken, there are six more at home.”
“Kadyrov has used this war to his advantage, to get rid of dissent.”
Abubakar Yangulbaev, former lawyer for the Committee Against Torture, believes there are “numerous individuals, not thousands but hundreds,” who have been forcibly sent to war. He views mobilization in Chechnya primarily as a tool of repression.
He points to cases including the conscription of Chechen dissident Akhmed Zakayev’s nephew, ex-mufti Valid Kuruev, who allegedly expressed disagreement with Kadyrov, and the brother of opposition Chechen blogger Khasan Khalitov. Yangulbaev himself has had four relatives coerced into fighting in Ukraine, and his family has endured years of persecution by Kadyrov due to their opposition views.
“Kadyrov has used this war to his advantage. First, by becoming a herald of war, he was able to rehabilitate himself in Putin’s eyes — this whole theater is for him. Second, he has used it to get rid of dissent locally and en masse. Most often there is pressure on the family,” Yangulbaev said.
“Naturally, Kadyrov openly threatens on local television to send those he deems undesirable into war — and to the most perilous zones,” Suleymanov said. Falling victim to Kadyrov’s mobilization doesn’t require guilt: Chechen authorities regularly scrutinize lists of those eligible for military service.
Human rights violations
Chechen human rights activists have identified three groups of forced mobilization:
• the guilty: critics of Kadyrov regime and relatives of oppositionists, whom authorities target to exert pressure on critics outside of Chechnya
• the evaders: individuals who evaded conscription and their relatives;
• penalty dodgers: those who have those have been “penalized” for real or fabricated violations.
“I have received information that the newly-formed Sheikh Mansur battalion has a large number of drug users and other individuals with criminal records,” a Chechen human rights activist told Important Stories on condition of anonymity. “Police departments have been tasked, for example, to mobilize 100 individuals from each district. If they fail to meet the quota, the department itself is deployed. So the police fabricate reasons for detaining men: running a red light, not paying for gas, or having tinted windows — they’ll find any excuse.”
Sometimes, no fabrication is necessary. In February, Grozny resident Jamilya (name changed for security reasons), unwittingly became involved in the recruitment of a “volunteer”.
“An acquaintance gave my number to an alcoholic and suggested he could pursue a relationship with me. He came to my window late at night, drunk and making threats. Terrified and home alone with my child, I called the police. They apprehended him and later contacted me to thank me for my help in the the mobilization plan. One more deployment to Ukraine,” Jamilya said.
Persecution and blackmail
“Recruiters constantly persecute and forcibly take people away. Two of my closest friends were sent to the front due to blackmail involving intimate photos of married women, orchestrated by the village imam. They were told ‘aren’t you men?’ and ‘men should be fighting,'” recounts Adam (name changed for security reasons), who works in the public sector and is therefore exempt from mobilization.
Recruiters regularly visit his village and to demanding that all men capable of bearing arms join the conflict in Ukraine. Adam says that his male relatives of military age have left Chechnya. When the recruiters failed to locate his brother, they tracked down his father, who wasn’t residing at his registered address.
“In every village, 15 to 20 individuals are targeted in this manner.”
One member of Adam’s family, who had not responded to the summons, was taken the police station allegedly over his religious beliefs. There, the police accessed his phone and found a video of him with a girl inside an apartment. “They told him that such behavior was not culturally accepted, and that he could either go to war or to prison. He refused and they fabricated a case, claiming they found 140 grams of hashish,” Adam said.
“In every village, 15 to 20 individuals are targeted in this manner,” said a Chechen political scientist and public figure, who asked not to be named. His own family also faced persecution: like Adam’s brother, a relative left Chechnya and ignored the summons. National Guard personnel visited the young man’s parents and threatened arrested. his brothers and uncle also faced similar threats. “Eventually, the young man returned and was dispatched to the front,” he said.
A lucrative business scheme
These raids are also part of a lucrative business scheme, a NIYSO representative said. “They present individuals with a choice: either pay a hefty sum (from 500,000 rubles), or enlist. Even when someone pays, they might return several times to demand more money, until the person is ultimately sent to the front.”
The NIYSO representative said that authorities also “siphon off a significant portion” of signing bonus paid to those who enlist, saying “they may also fabricate injury documents to pocket the funds meant for the individual.”
These schemes also exploit women. One human rights activist cites the example of a girl wearing a headscarf who approached a young man was standing near his car in the center of Grozny. “She asked to enter his car to adjust her headscarf out of sight. He agreed. Subsequently, law enforcement officers in civilian attire approached, requested his documents, opened the car door and found the girl inside, not fully clothed. They recorded the scene and used it as blackmail to send him to Ukraine. Since then, nothing has been heard about him.”
Problems at the border
Yangulbaev, the former Committee Against Torture lawyer, said that filing complaints over forced mobilization has proven futile, leading to a silent exodus.
A human rights activist assisting refugees said that the primary transit destinations are Kazakhstan — where Chechens often encounter border issues — and Turkey — where although deportations are rare, individuals with expired visas risk detention.
The activist said that Chechnya’s mandatory military training includes watching videos of Chechen refugees waiting at European borders. “Kadyrov’s people show these videos to imply that Europe rejects Chechens, leaving them with no alternative but to participate in the war in Ukraine for a few months before returning to normal life. Many heed this call,” the activist said.
Many have been detained or deported at the Belarusian-Polish border. “There’s an implicit agreement in Belarus with Kadyrov’s men: upon spotting a Chechen, they immediately contact Kadyrov’s forces. If the forces have an interest in the individual, they can apprehend them,” the human rights activist said.
That is what happened to one of the activist’s charges in 2023, who was a fleeing forced mobilization, and was on the local police wanted list. Chechen security forces apprehended him at the border.
