The multi-millionaire President of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has joined Russian forces in Kyiv.
The 45-year-old friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin is reported to have taken to Telegram to share a video of himself wearing a military uniform.
In the video, Kadyrov could be seen studying plans alongside a table surrounded by soldiers claiming to be in Hostomel, a village outside Kyiv, at an airfield captured by Russian forces in the first days of the war.
Kadyrov wrote: "The other day, we were about 20km from you Kyiv Nazis, and now we are even closer."
He added: "We will show you that Russian practice teaches warfare better than foreign theory and the recommendations of military advisers."
Kadyrov has been accused of a number of serious human rights violations by many international NGOs.
The father of 12 has six sons, two of whom were adopted, and six daughters. Despite polygamy being illegal in Russia, he has three wives; Medni Musaevna Kadyrova (43), Fatima Khazuyeva (29) and Aminat Akhmadova.
The president has been in office since 2007 and, during his time, has led anti-gay purges and advocated to restrict the public lives of women.
The 'savage' has also been accused of ordering the kidnap, torture, and murder of opponents, journalists and critics.
Kadyrov has even gone as far as to encourage families to murder anyone in their household who is gay as an alternative to law enforcement.
An activist for the Russian LGBT network said: "In Chechnya, being homosexual is considered to be a huge shame."
"Homosexuality is considered shameful not only for the person but for their whole family, and there are honour killings. It is considered that homosexuality brings such a shame on the family that there is only one way to wash the shame away - to kill the person. And we know these things are happening.
"Sometimes people are released from prisons because the authorities know they are going to be killed by the family."
Tanya Lokshina from the Human Rights Wash said that gay men were being forcibly "disappeared."
"Law enforcement and security agency officials under control of the ruthless head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, have rounded up dozens of men on suspicion of being gay, torturing and humiliating the victims," she said.
"Some of the men have forcibly disappeared. Others were returned to their families, barely alive from beatings. At least three men apparently have died since this brutal campaign began."
Kadyrov has denied these claims saying that there were no gay people in his country.
In an interview with HBO's Real Sports, he said: "We don't have those kind of people here. We don't have any gays. If there are any, take them to Canada.
"Praise be to God. Take them far from us, so we don't have them at home. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them."
Asked about the accusations of systematic torture, Kadyrov said, "They made it up. They are devils. They are for sale. They are subhuman. God damn them for slandering us."
