Leaders often stage events to project power and control, but sometimes these displays backfire.
That’s what happened recently when Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov appeared on television following a Ukrainian drone strike on a military barracks in Grozny.
The strike had disrupted preparations for a public event where Kadyrov planned to address his people, according to WP.
Later that evening, he made his appearance, riding into view in a captured American infantry vehicle and flanked by Ukrainian prisoners of war.
What followed wasn’t a show of strength — it was a spectacle that left many shocked.
Let Them Protect Our Territory
Kadyrov asked the prisoners if they were being treated well. When they confirmed, he mocked them, saying they looked “like they just came back from vacation.”
Then, he suggested using them as human shields. His proposal? Place the prisoners on the roofs of military facilities being photographed by U.S. satellites.
“Let them protect our territory,” he said, with a tone that was anything but joking.
But the most chilling moment came when he turned to one prisoner. Kadyrov handed him a gun, taunting him about the nature of war.
“Better to die than to be captured, isn’t it?” he asked. Then he pressed further: “If you want, I’ll give you this pistol. Will you shoot yourself?”
The prisoner refused, saying calmly, “No, I want to live.”
Kadyrov wouldn’t let up. “You went to war to kill and die. That’s how it works. War isn’t a cartoon,” he said, dismissing the man with disdain.
Human rights organizations have condemned the stunt as a violation of international law. Using prisoners of war for propaganda, especially to humiliate them, is widely regarded as unacceptable.
The drone strike earlier that day was a reminder of Ukraine’s reach. But Kadyrov’s response—meant to intimidate—has only drawn more criticism.
His attempts at bravado have instead shown the grim and dehumanizing tactics that often define modern conflict.
