News update: Ukrainian ‘drone plane’ strikes base in Chechnya

Ukraine’s military attacked the capital of Chechnya on Sunday, with locals reporting that three drones targeted military and police bases.

Two of the devices were shot down, while the third hit the Akhmat-Grozny OMON base, which reportedly houses units of the Chechen leader’s private army.

Footage posted on Russian Telegram channels showed a plane-like long-range missile hurtling towards a building in the city of Grozny, accompanied by the sound of gunfire in the background, followed by a large explosion.

Self-styled Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov said no casualties had been reported and that he would respond with “more precise and harsher retaliatory strikes”.

Chechnya is a mainly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation. Kadyrov has been a vocal supporter of Moscow’s war and has sent forces to Ukraine, some 1,000km away, to fight alongside Russian forces.

Yan Matveyev, a Russian military analyst, wrote on social media that the drone was probably an A-22, a modified light aircraft which has reportedly been used by Kyiv for long-range unmanned strikes into Russia.

Yaroslav Trofimov, The Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, said on X that the drones “flew at least 500 miles”.

The attack is Ukraine’s third this month in the region. Earlier this week, a drone was shot down over a police barracks, with four guards suffering light wounds from the falling debris. Last week a drone reportedly hit the roof of a police facility.

In October, the roof of a military training centre in the Chechen city of Gudermes was set ablaze in what appeared to be the first Ukrainian drone attack directed against Chechnya since the start of the war in February 2022.

Addressing Sunday’s attack, Kadyrov said on Telegram: “Next time you think of attacking the Chechen Republic with drones, keep in mind that we will be launching selective strikes on places where Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel are concentrated. And the consequences of such strikes will be many times more terrible.”