Brutal Chechen warlord Kadyrov vows Russia will capture Ukraine capital Kyiv

Brutal warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful head of Russia's republic of Chechnya, said early on Monday that there will be an offensive by Russian forces not only on the besieged port of Mariupol, but also on the capital Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

"There will be an offensive… not only on Mariupol, but also on other places, cities and villages," Kadyrov said in a video posted on his channel on the Telegram messaging app.

"Luhansk and Donetsk – we will fully liberate in the first place… and then take Kyiv and all other cities."

Kadyrov, who has often described himself as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "foot soldier", said there should be no doubt about Kyiv.

"I assure you: not one step will be taken back," Kadyrov said.

Kadyrov has been repeatedly accused by the United States and European Union of rights abuses, which he denies.

Moscow fought two wars with separatists in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region in southern Russia, after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. But it has since poured huge sums of money into the region to rebuild it and given Kadyrov a large measure of autonomy.

The Kremlin, which has been accused of perpetrating grave abuses during its invasion of Ukraine, claims Russia is conducting is a "special operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" its neighbour, and on Sunday Moscow intensified its attacks in eastern Ukraine.

Kyiv strongly rejects this framing.

(Reuters)