Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating
The images are so gruesome I won’t post them. But they’ve been flooding my inbox, as if I didn’t already know that men are getting chewed up on the battlefields of Ukraine and Russia. These particular images come from a social media account that claims to belong to Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. The images supposedly depict Chechen fighters who were hurt “defending the homeland.” The pics are similar to others I get from war zones, crime scenes, and cartel operations – yet with a twist.
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On the surface, this is standard “carnage porn.” The X-ray photo in the inset (above) is the mildest, depicting a foot that is supposed to belong to a Chechen fighter who was wounded in a drone attack. The photo was part of a batch depicting men in horrific condition. If you didn’t know better, you’d think many were images showing the floor of a butcher shop. They portray gaping flesh, ripped limbs, and torrents of blood. The worst are those that clearly are human. The faces are contorted in agony – and it’s not evident whether these are frozen death masks, or living men.
Here’s the twist. These are not documentary photos. They’re a type of crowdfunding effort; part of a fundraising appeal.
The would-be philanthropists say they need the donations to cover medical care for the troops.
“Once again we ask each of you to HELP,” reads a translated appeal that accompanies some of the butcher shop pics. The supplIcants want money “to help military doctors continue to fight for the lives of the guys.”
The fundraisers accuse readers of not caring enough about the soldiers; and say they need “only the most necessary things.” This includes front line medical care and evacuation, “everything necessary for the work of operating rooms – only those places where every second there is a fight for the lives of soldiers.”
As of mid-November, the fundraisers say they have raised about 594,000 rubles out of a target 1,000,000. According to one currency conversion calculator, the target amount is roughly $10,000.00 U.S.
And yet, other photos show that the coffers must be fat in Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, where Kadyrov is based.
Who can forget the images of a gleeful Kadyrov decked out in his favorite gear while perched atop a new Tesla Cybertruck?
Kadyrov
The unanswered questions are, do the fundraising appeals actually come via the Chechen leader? If so, why would a wealthy warlord ask the public to raise the relatively small sum of $10K?
Neither the fundraisers nor Kadyrov responded to requests for comment sent via social media.
The whole thing doesn’t make sense. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. Perhaps it’s a lie. Maybe the photos really do come from a butcher shop, or a medical dissection lab.
Maybe it’s all a scam.
After all, hoaxes and shakedowns always are plentiful in war zones, crime scenes, and the seedier sides of life.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.
