Chechen special forces academy hit by drone attack, warlord says

The school has trained 47,000 troops deployed to Ukraine.

A Chechen military training school came under drone attack on Tuesday, the region’s strongman leader announced.

The Russian Special Forces University, located in the town of Gudermes, was struck in the morning and set ablaze, Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said on Telegram.

“Today at 6:30 a.m. in Gudermes, as a result of an unmanned aerial attack, the roof of an empty building on the territory of the Russian University of Special Forces caught fire,” Kadyrov wrote on social media. “There are no victims or injured. The fire has been extinguished.”

He added that “investigative bodies” were working on “identifying those involved in the crime” and that the school was still operating as usual.

It is the first time Chechnya, a Russian republic located in the North Caucasus, has been targeted in a drone attack since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in early 2022, according to Ukrainian media.

The school’s website says it instructs both soldiers and civilians in a variety of combat tactics, including shooting, artillery and parachute landing. More than 47,000 troops deployed to the front line in Ukraine have been trained there, according to the Kremlin.