A drone strike targeted Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya on October 29 for the first time in Moscow’s war against Ukraine, according to claims by dictator Ramzan Kadyrov and media reports.

The drone strike hit the building Russian The University of Special Forces named after Vladimir Putin in the city of Gudermes, the independent news outlet Agency reported.

Images shared on social media show significant damage and a heavy fire at the university’s main building, Agentstvo noted.

Kadyrov claimed that the strike, which took place at 6:30 a.m. local time, hit the roof of the university’s empty building, starting a fire but causing no casualties. The fire had been extinguished, Chechen said the dictator.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims. Ukraine has yet to comment on the reported attack.

While Russian state media reported that the university was built in 2016, the institution’s management said it was still under construction as of 2023. The facility was presented by Kadyrov as a multifunctional complex combining modern methods and techniques of special forces.

Putin visited the university in August this year. According to a statement on the Kremlin’s website, the Russian president “inspected the training complex, attended the courses, spoke with special forces commanders, instructors and volunteers in training there.”

Chechen pro-Kremlin fighters (“Kadyrovites”) have fought on Russia’s side since the outbreak of the full-scale invasion. In turn, Chechen anti-Russian volunteers joined the war on the side of Ukraine, forming several formations such as the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion.

A group of members of the Russian National Guard service was allegedly attacked by unknown attackers near the regional capital of Groznyi on October 24, leaving one soldier dead and another wounded.

Kadyrov claims that a group of Russian lawmakers is plotting his assassination

“They are witnesses, there are people from whom they tried to order, whom they asked how much they will take for the order,” Ramzan Kadyrov told other officials in the North Caucasus republic in Chechen.