Chechnya once resisted Russia. Now, its leader is Putin's brutal ally in Ukraine
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has long been seen as a key ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin. That commitment has now extended to the war in Ukraine.
In the 1990s and 2000s, people in Chechnya described Russia's two separate wars there as a nightmare that terrorized citizens and left the capital of Grozny in ruins.
"The ground was literally charred. There were very few buildings in the center of Grozny still standing," said Maura Reynolds, the then Moscow correspondent for the . "All the trees were burned, you know, had lost all their branches and leaves. Even though it was spring, there was
