MOSCOW
\nChechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Monday he was sending three of his teenage sons \u2014 aged 14, 15 and 16 \u2014 to the Ukraine front.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s time to prove themselves in a real fight, I can only welcome this desire,\u201d Kadyrov wrote on Telegram, posting a video of the young boys firing missiles in a shooting range.
\n\u201cSoon they will go to the front line and will be on the most difficult sections of the contact line.\u201d
\nHe said Akhmat (16), Eli (15) and Adam (14) have been trained for combat \u201calmost from their youngest years\u201d and insisted he was \u201cnot joking.\u201d
\nThe video showed the boys in camouflage clothing and dark glasses, on tanks, guns strapped to their waists, shooting rocket launchers and machine guns.
\nAt times the teenagers smile while shooting or made a thumbs-up gesture.
\nKadyrov, a former warlord who leads the Muslim-majority Chechnya republic, has been one of the most vocal supporters of Putin\u2019s Ukraine offensive.
\nThe post came as the Kremlin on Monday dismissed his call to use low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine after a series of military defeats.
\n\u201cThis is a very emotional moment,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a daily briefing with journalists, referring to his statements.
\n\u201cIn our country, the use of nuclear weapons happens only on the basis of what is stated in the relevant doctrine,\u201d Peskov said.
\nPeskov nevertheless hailed the \u201cheroic contributions\u201d of the Chechen leader to the military operation in Ukraine.
\nKadyrov called on the nuclear option after Moscow withdrew from the town of Lyman, which took weeks to gain control of earlier this year.
\n\u201cIn my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and use of low-yield nuclear weapons,\u201d Kadyrov said on his Telegram channel.
\nHe also criticized Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, who is in charge of Russia\u2019s forces fighting in the region, calling him \u201cmediocre.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Monday he was sending three of his teenage sons \u2014 aged 14, 15 and 16 \u2014 to the Ukraine front. \u201cIt\u2019s time to prove themselves in a real fight, I can only welcome this desire,\u201d Kadyrov wrote on Telegram, posting a video of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-287192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n