Russia burning as huge 'Ukrainian strike sets Special Forces university ablaze'

A photo purporting to show the aftermath of the attack. (Image: X/@Gerashchenko_en)

A special forces university visited by Russian President Vladimir Putin just two months ago has been targeted in a drone attack, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said.

Kadyrov, a close ally of Putin, said a drone strike early on Tuesday morning drone strike damaged the training centre in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya.

If carried out by Kyiv's forces, it would be the first such attack on the region since Putin's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

“At 6:30 this morning, the roof of an empty building on the territory of the Russian Special Forces University caught fire in Gudermes as a result of an unmanned aerial attack,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

Gudermes is a town on the Sunzha River some 22 miles east of the capital Grozny.

Kadyrov and Putin during a visit to the training centre in August. (Image: Getty)

Kadyrov said no one was killed or injured and the fire had been extinguished, adding that it didn't cause any disruptions at the university.

The Chechen dictator said police were investigating the attack but did not say whether he thought Ukraine was responsible. Kyiv is yet to comment.

In a video published by Russian state news agency RIA later on Tuesday, Kadyrov said: "They've bitten us - we will destroy them," apparently without referring directly to Ukraine.

"In the very near future we'll show them the kind of vengeance they've never even dreamt of," he added, as per news agency Reuters.

Anton Gerashchenko, a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and current advisor at the department, shared pictures on X purporting to show the aftermath of the strike.

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The leader of Chechnya, which is around 373 miles southeast of the border with Ukraine, has been a passionate supporter of the invasion and Putin's regime and previously described himself as the Kremlin leader's "footsoldier".

The Russian Special Forces University, the only private educational institution in Chechnya that trains special unit personnel, was created a centre to train soldiers for the war, with combat drone production launched this spring, The Moscow Times reports.

President Vladimir Putin visited the university in August. The Kremlin said that the Russian leader “inspected the training complex, observed classes, spoke with special forces commanders, instructors, and volunteers undergoing training there”, as per The i.

Since Russia’s so-called "special operation" began, the university has been used to train soldiers for the war and is said to have dispatched around 50,000 troops to join the fighting.