Russia’s success is partly a result of a shifting recruiting message, as it now relentlessly tells would-be soldiers that the war in Ukraine is really a fight against NATO, U.S. officials said. Russian bonuses have also drastically increased.
By combining these strategies, Mr. Putin may not need to order a politically unpopular broad draft, U.S. military and intelligence officials say.
Not really sure of the politics here but it seems they did this trying to play off the fact that Russia has been trying to subjugate Chechnya for the past century, and the current Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov is a pro-Putin puppet that some Chechens hate. Therefore, by striking a "special forces training center" run by Kadyrov, I'd imagine they'd want to signal support to his detractors and encourage them to continue volunteering in Ukraine to fight against Russia.
dirty tricks like fairly paying your soldiers
Ukraine also drone striked Chechenya lately, i bet this will really discourage Chechens who were per capita most numerous volunteers to that war.
Not really sure of the politics here but it seems they did this trying to play off the fact that Russia has been trying to subjugate Chechnya for the past century, and the current Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov is a pro-Putin puppet that some Chechens hate. Therefore, by striking a "special forces training center" run by Kadyrov, I'd imagine they'd want to signal support to his detractors and encourage them to continue volunteering in Ukraine to fight against Russia.
Despite this it was indeed a very stupid move because now anyone who is patriotic and doesn't hate Kadyrov would be fucking pissed at this long range attack on their homeland and will probably enlist at greater numbers (the "special forces training center" apparently provided civilians with military skills too).
Given the context you mention, could you explain why so many Chechens volunteered in the first place? Was it poverty?