Adam Kadyrov, the son of Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, has made a harsh statement addressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, promising to ‘find and bring’ him to Grozny if ordered to do so by his father or by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The statement was prompted by Zelenskyi’s remarks made on 7 January, during which he, while commenting on US actions against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, called for similar measures to be taken against Ramzan Kadyrov. In particular, Zelenskyi said that the US should carry out ‘some kind of operation with Kadyrov’ in order to put pressure on Russia.
In response, Adam Kadyrov wrote on his personal Instagram account that he did not regard Zelenskyi’s words as a joke, but as an insult. He stressed that if the appropriate order were given, he would be ready to track down Zelenskyi ‘anywhere’. According to him, this would not involve any publicly announced operations, but direct action. He further claimed that Zelenskyi would be brought to Grozny ‘not as a president, but as a war criminal’.
Adam Kadyrov, 18, is Ramzan Kadyrov’s third son. He currently serves as Secretary of Chechnya’s Security Council.
In his Instagram post, Adam Kadyrov emphasised that Zelenskyi’s remarks were ‘not forgotten and not forgiven in Chechnya’, and that he considers such words a personal insult.
‘The so-called “president” of Ukraine — a Kyiv drug addict who has completely lost touch with reality — is once again babbling something about my father, Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov. Out of hopelessness, this clown is begging his masters to “deliver Ramzan Kadyrov to America”. This is already a diagnosis of complete moral and political decay of a person who has played at being a soldier and now imagines himself to be who knows what’, Adam Kadyrov wrote.
He threatened Zelenskyi, claiming that the Ukrainian president would ‘sob and howl, kiss boots and beg for forgiveness’.
‘You are a clown stained with blood. You are an empty space whose words are not worth even a single shot. You have destroyed your country for the sake of cheap pathos and Western praise. But your time will soon be over. And when that happens, you will remember today’s “sharp jokes”. And you will regret every word you have said. Get ready, actor. The finale of your performance will be written by us. And it will be far from a comedy’, Adam Kadyrov wrote.
Ramzan Kadyrov himself had earlier responded sharply to Zelenskyi’s remarks, describing them as ‘demeaning’. He also stated that, in his view, they indicated an attempt to disrupt possible negotiations. According to Kadyrov, such rhetoric, as he put it, highlights the weak position of the Ukrainian leadership.
The exchange of statements has become part of an ongoing public rhetorical confrontation between Ukrainian and Chechen officials amidst Russia’s continuing full-scale war against Ukraine. Representatives of the Chechen authorities and units subordinate to Ramzan Kadyrov have previously featured repeatedly in official statements and propaganda rhetoric related to the fighting.
Elizaveta Chukharova
