Kadyrov claimed a video showed him ‘7 kilometers from Kyiv’ in the early days of the full-scale war. An investigation found it was actually filmed in a secret Chechen prison.

A video of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov meeting with Chechen commanders “near Kyiv” — circulated by Chechen media at the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine — was actually filmed in Chechnya, according to a major investigation by the independent Russian investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe into how Kadyrov’s army operates.