Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by Susan Katz Keating
Skeptics quickly raised questions about the vehicle. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dmitry wrote. “There’s a lithium battery in there, and if it gets depressurized, it will start a fire that can’t be put out.”
Ramzan Kadyrov, who leads Russia’s Chechnya region, took to social media on Saturday with a video of himself behind the wheel of what resembles a “Tesla technical.” The sleek Tesla Cybertruck is equipped with a heavy gun mounted in the back.
In a post and video set to dramatic music on Telegram, Kadyrov praised the vehicle and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, while adding that he would assign the vehicle to be used in the Ukraine war. The bombastic warlord claimed that Musk had sent him the Cybertruck – a claim Musk emphatically denied on social media.
In the video, a grinning Kadyrov appears standing in the vehicle’s pickup bed, while heavily draped in ammunition belts.
An excerpt from the video is shown, below.
“I was happy to test the new technology and personally saw that it is not by chance that it is called the “Cyberbeast,” Kadyrov wrote. “A real invulnerable and fast animal. A maneuverable car, develops excellent speed and overcomes obstacles. A very comfortable car.
“Based on such excellent characteristics, the cybertruck will soon be sent to the SVO zone, where it will be in demand in the appropriate conditions. I am sure that this “beast” will bring a lot of benefit to our soldiers.”
Some of Kadyrov’s social media followers praised the vehicle, calling it “amazing” or “a good gift!” But skeptics quickly raised questions.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dmitry wrote. “There’s a lithium battery in there, and if it gets depressurized, it will start a fire that can’t be put out.”
“And how is it better than those that are 3 times cheaper?” one man asked. “Or how is it more useful than a loaf of bread at the front…”
“It’s not an MRAP,” another wrote. “It will break down, or get stuck in the mud.”
Elon Musk, meanwhile, denied that he gifted a Cybertruck to Kadyrov.
“Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general?” Musk wrote on his social media platform, X.
Kadyrov lavished praise upon Tesla Motors’ chief, Elon Musk, branding him as the “strongest genius of modern times.”
Previously Kadyrov wrote insulting comments about Musk, and advised him not to fight Russian President Vladimir Putin in a hand-to-hand match.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.
