The Kadyrovites, irregular forces loyal to the Chechen autocrat Ramzan Kadyrov, have been present in Ukraine since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country. Yet, despite their role in perpetrating war crimes in Bucha, the Kadyrovites have proven to be militarily ineffective. Indeed, they have been reported to be consistently far away from the front line. Why, then, has the Kremlin approved of the Kadyrovites participating in the war in Ukraine despite their ineffectiveness as a fighting force? Drawing from governmental sources, state-owned news media, and social media, this qualitative paper posits that the Kremlin supports the participation of Kadyrovites in the conflict because they serve as a performative, psychological component of Moscow’s hybrid warfare arsenal, elevating the domestic perception of Chechen fighters as patriotic warriors and more broadly promoting a multiethnic character of the militarized Russian state.