Despite publicly pledging his support for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has largely avoided sending Chechens to the front en masse, The Economist reported on Aug. 11, citing a source close to the republic’s leadership.

Axar.az informs, citing The New Voice of Ukraine, that Kadyrov does not want to sacrifice Chechnya’s population for the “Russian world,” the source said. At the same time, he has used the war to consolidate his power and suppress perceived disloyalty.

Kadyrov’s speeches are filled with bellicose attacks on the West and declarations of loyalty to Putin.

“We are ready to advance in whatever direction the supreme commander-in-chief chooses ... [our] special forces are literally fired up to carry out extremely difficult missions,” Kadyrov said on July 18.

He previously claimed that Chechnya had sent more than 70,880 fighters to the war — equivalent to 9% of the republic’s male population.

That would be the highest deployment rate of any Russian region. Yet Mediazona, an independent Russian outlet that tracks military fatalities, had recorded only 539 Chechen deaths on July 10. Chechens represented 0.2% of Russia’s recorded military deaths, despite accounting for 1.1% of its population.