The Kadyrovtsy is a paramilitary organization in the Russian republic of Chechnya which was founded by Akhmad Kadyrov in 1994 as a separatist militia. Kadyrov defected to the Russian side in 1999 during the Second Chechen War, and the Kadyrovtsy fought against both the Ichkerian separatists and jihadists as a de facto unit of the state police after Kadyrov became President of Chechyna in 2000. His son Ramzan Kadyrov inherited control of the militia, and, in 2006, the Kadyrovtsy was legalized as a motorized regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it was made a personal protective service in 2007 after Kadyrov was elected President of Chechnya. The Kadyrovtsy, as Kadyrov's private army, carried out human rights abuses such as kidnapping, forced disappearances, torture, and murder, and the Kadyrovtsy were deployed to enforce order in the Syrian city of Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War and fought in the Russo-Ukrainian War, initially as part of the pro-Russian separatist Vostok Battalion, and later as special forces during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the 2022 invasion, the Kadyrovtsy were deployed to capture and kill Ukraine's leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, and, on 27 February, the Ukrainian military ambushed and destroyed a column of 56 Kadyrovtsy vehicles near Hostomel (north of Kyiv); the Ukrainian government also announced that it had thwarted an attempt on Zelensky's life by the Kadyrovtsy.