Putin Ally Reveals Sons as Young as 14 Have Seen Direct Combat in Ukraine

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Thursday that his three teen sons have been fighting in the war in Ukraine.

In a post on Telegram, Kadyrov said his sons Akhmat, 16, Eli, 15, and Adam, 14, "visited the contact line, where fierce battles with Ukrainian nationalists are currently taking place," according to a translation from the independent Moscow Times.

He added that the children "made their way close to the enemy positions and provided fire cover to advancing fighters." Video posted by Kadyrov appears to show the children firing and posing with weapons on the frontlines.

Kadyrov's comments came after he hinted earlier this month that he would send his children to the frontlines.

"Minor age should not interfere with the training of the defenders of our motherland," Kadyrov wrote in a post on VK, a Russian social media platform.

"I always believed that the main goal of any father is to instill piety in his sons and teach them to protect the family, the people, the Fatherland...It's time to show themselves in a real fight, and this is their desire, I only welcome [it]," Kadyrov said, referring to his teen children.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense and human rights officials for comment.

Earlier this week, Kadyrov said he believes the war in Ukraine is entering a new phase, noting recent deadly strikes on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, this month.

"We warned the criminal leadership, which settled in Kyiv, for too long that we had not yet taken concrete measures in the course of the ['special military operation']," Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram account on Wednesday.

"Russia has repeatedly given a chance to the command of the Satanists to come to their senses. But we were not heard or ignored. Now everything will be different. Then we will dictate the terms."

The Chechen leader also recently called on the Russian military to use nuclear weapons as Ukrainians made gains in Russian-occupied territory last month.

He said he believed "more drastic measures should be taken, up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons.

"It is not necessary to take every decision with an eye on the Western American community - it has already said so and done a lot against us," Kadyrov said.

The comments came after Ukrainian troops encircled the city of Lyman, which Russia had occupied for months, forcing Russian troops to withdraw from the area.