Chechnya’s head ready to release captured Ukrainians if sanctions on his relatives lifted

Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has offered to release the captured Ukrainian servicemen in exchange for the United States lifting sanctions against his family members.

"If they lift the sanctions on my mom, my daughters, innocent people, horses, except for me, (...) then we will give these people back," Kadyrov told the ex-UN inspector for monitoring the elimination of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction who arrived in Grozny, according to Forbes.

"We have prisoners whom we took away in Donetsk, Luhansk [People's Republics] (...) If they lift the sanctions on my mom, my daughters, innocent people, horses, except for me,(...) then we will give these people away," Kadyrov said in Grozny at the construction of law enforcement officers. He stated this to Scott Ritter, ex-UN inspector for monitoring the elimination of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

The matter concerns the release of 20 captured Ukrainians. When handing over their list, Ritter was also shown a video with prisoners who asked to remove "absurd, unaffected sanctions" from Kadyrov's relatives, his horses and the plane.

Kadyrov later wrote on his Telegram channel that his suggestion was "fat trolling." "Scott Ritter, unlike some, got this fat trolling right. And as for the sanctions, they do not interfere with our lives in any way," the head of Chechnya said.

He added that he initially knew that "for the US leadership, the lives of ordinary Ukrainians mean nothing."

In July 2020, the United States imposed sanctions against Kadyrov, his wife Medni Kadyrova, as well as daughters Aishat and Karina. Mike Pompeo, then Secretary of State, explained this by the involvement of the head of Chechnya in human rights violations in the republic.

In August 2023, after the start of the "military special operation"*, Kadyrov's mother Aimani, as well as people from the entourage of the head of Chechnya, were sanctioned by the US Treasury.