The Kremlin-appointed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has vowed to avenge a Ukrainian drone attack that struck a military training facility in Chechnya. The raid, which appears to be the first of its kind to hit the southern Russian republic, is one of the longest-range drone strikes that Ukraine has attempted. The target was a special forces training center, but the attack also carries significant symbolic value, due to the high level of support of local strongman Ramzan Kadyrov for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Imagery posted to social media shows the apparent aftermath of the drone strike, on the military training academy in the town of Gudermes, 22 miles east of Grozny, the Chechen capital. As we have discussed in the past, Kadyrov was directly responsible for the creation of the Russian University of Special Forces — also known as the University of Spetsnaz — in Gudermes in 2013.