sohailbarki
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Two large armored convoys of the 81st regiment drove down Pervomaiskaya Street, stretching out along the road for a mile. When the first vehicles reached the Presidential Palace, the leading column was ambushed and came under heavy fire from Chechen small arms and rockets, directed from the roofs and basements along the street. The Chechen ambush would typically funnel the Russian armored columns into "killing fields", and then the RPG gunners would knock out the first and last vehicles in the line, thereby trapping the rest of both battalions in the middle. Almost useless in urban combat, Russian tanks were unable to elevate their tank barrels high enough to engage the top floors of many buildings, or low enough to fire into the basements.
The brigade's deputy commander for training, Colonel Stankevich, took command of the largest group of the regiment's survivors, as the bulk of the unit's armor was destroyed in the street; joined by some paratroopers, they eventually fought their way back to Russian lines. Having obliterated most of the 81st, the Chechen fighters then moved in search of more tanks, after plundering what was not on fire for weapons and ammunition. By the evening, they gathered in the center of Grozny, regrouping around the city's main marketplace and moving towards the main train station.
The end results of the New Year's Eve battle were devastating for the Russian side, which lost an estimated 105 of 120 tanks sent into the city[citation needed]. The entire first battalion of the Maikop Brigade, more than 50% of the 81st Regiment, and hundreds of men from the remaining units had been killed. A high-ranking Russian General Staff officer later said "On January 2nd, we lost contact with our forward units." According to Maskhadov, some 400 Russian tanks and APCs in all were destroyed. Russian Colonel General A. Galkin reported 225 armored vehicles lost during the first month and a half of the war, including 62 tanks.
Most of the Spetsnaz detachment troops surrendered to the Chechens, "after wandering about hopelessly for three days without food, let alone any clear idea of what they were supposed to do." A Russian Lieutenant Colonel was quoted when he returned from Chechen captivity as saying, "the only order was to go forward, without explanations as to what they should do, where they should go, and whom they should capture." Meanwhile, highly mobile Chechens attacked even the Russian second-echelon forces outside the city, raiding an artillery battalion.
On January 7, Orthodox Christmas, the Russians concentrated their assault on the Chechen Presidential Palace, a large, concrete structure built in Soviet times as the local Chechen Communist party headquarters, including a blast shelter underneath. It was defended by 350 Chechen full-time fighters and an estimated 150 part-time militiamen.
The Russians launched heavy volleys of artillery and Grad rockets, setting buildings and the oil refinery ablaze. The Chechens held the Russians back, though the upper floors of the building caught fire. Russia's Major General Viktor Vorobyov was killed by a mortar shell on the same day, becoming the first on a long list of Russian generals to be killed in Chechnya.
On January 9, the Russians declared a ceasefire which proved to be a hoax. Two hours after the ceasefire started, on January 10, the Russians launched a heavy bombardment of the Presidential Palace and managed to position three tanks around the building, firing at point blank range. Towards the middle of January, there was heavy fighting within 100-200 meters of the palace. As the Chechen resistance fell low on ammunition, food, and water, resistance proved ever more difficult for them.
On January 18, Russian forces launched a massive air and artillery attack; by Chechen estimation, rockets were hitting the palace at a rate of one per second. Sukhoi Su-25 fighter aircraft dropped two bunker busters into the Palace. The bombs fell through all 11 floors and fell into the reinforced bunker below the building; one landed 20 meters from the HQ of General Maskhadov, miraculously not exploding. Before midnight, the Chechen command left the Palace in three groups, Maskhadov being among the last to leave. These groups retreated to a hospital on the south side of the Sunzha River, while Russian helicopters flew over the city calling on Chechens to surrender with no effect. According to elements of the Chechen command, Russian snipers had Chechens in full sight but were too exhausted to continue fighting.
Casualties
Dead bodies on a truck in Grozny
Military casualties are unknown, but are estimated to run into the thousands of killed and wounded on both sides. The officially released figures on the Russian losses were 1,376 killed in action and 408 missing in action, yet the actual figure could be higher. According to Dudayev, 4,000 Russian soldiers died in the New Year's Eve attack alone (1,500 according to the Russian human rights defenders).
As of the civilian casualties, Sergei Kovalev, the Russian Duma's commissioner for human rights, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin's aide on human rights, who had been in Grozny during part of the fighting, estimated 27,000 people, many of them ethnic Russians, died in five weeks of fighting. Anatol Lieven, who was also in Grozny during the battle, in his book Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power put his estimates lower at about 5,000 killed civilians, with some 500 more killed by the Russian air raids prior to the battle.
International monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe described the scenes as "unimaginable catastrophe," while German Chancellor Helmut Kohl described the events as "sheer madness."
The brigade's deputy commander for training, Colonel Stankevich, took command of the largest group of the regiment's survivors, as the bulk of the unit's armor was destroyed in the street; joined by some paratroopers, they eventually fought their way back to Russian lines. Having obliterated most of the 81st, the Chechen fighters then moved in search of more tanks, after plundering what was not on fire for weapons and ammunition. By the evening, they gathered in the center of Grozny, regrouping around the city's main marketplace and moving towards the main train station.
The end results of the New Year's Eve battle were devastating for the Russian side, which lost an estimated 105 of 120 tanks sent into the city[citation needed]. The entire first battalion of the Maikop Brigade, more than 50% of the 81st Regiment, and hundreds of men from the remaining units had been killed. A high-ranking Russian General Staff officer later said "On January 2nd, we lost contact with our forward units." According to Maskhadov, some 400 Russian tanks and APCs in all were destroyed. Russian Colonel General A. Galkin reported 225 armored vehicles lost during the first month and a half of the war, including 62 tanks.
Most of the Spetsnaz detachment troops surrendered to the Chechens, "after wandering about hopelessly for three days without food, let alone any clear idea of what they were supposed to do." A Russian Lieutenant Colonel was quoted when he returned from Chechen captivity as saying, "the only order was to go forward, without explanations as to what they should do, where they should go, and whom they should capture." Meanwhile, highly mobile Chechens attacked even the Russian second-echelon forces outside the city, raiding an artillery battalion.
On January 7, Orthodox Christmas, the Russians concentrated their assault on the Chechen Presidential Palace, a large, concrete structure built in Soviet times as the local Chechen Communist party headquarters, including a blast shelter underneath. It was defended by 350 Chechen full-time fighters and an estimated 150 part-time militiamen.
The Russians launched heavy volleys of artillery and Grad rockets, setting buildings and the oil refinery ablaze. The Chechens held the Russians back, though the upper floors of the building caught fire. Russia's Major General Viktor Vorobyov was killed by a mortar shell on the same day, becoming the first on a long list of Russian generals to be killed in Chechnya.
On January 9, the Russians declared a ceasefire which proved to be a hoax. Two hours after the ceasefire started, on January 10, the Russians launched a heavy bombardment of the Presidential Palace and managed to position three tanks around the building, firing at point blank range. Towards the middle of January, there was heavy fighting within 100-200 meters of the palace. As the Chechen resistance fell low on ammunition, food, and water, resistance proved ever more difficult for them.
On January 18, Russian forces launched a massive air and artillery attack; by Chechen estimation, rockets were hitting the palace at a rate of one per second. Sukhoi Su-25 fighter aircraft dropped two bunker busters into the Palace. The bombs fell through all 11 floors and fell into the reinforced bunker below the building; one landed 20 meters from the HQ of General Maskhadov, miraculously not exploding. Before midnight, the Chechen command left the Palace in three groups, Maskhadov being among the last to leave. These groups retreated to a hospital on the south side of the Sunzha River, while Russian helicopters flew over the city calling on Chechens to surrender with no effect. According to elements of the Chechen command, Russian snipers had Chechens in full sight but were too exhausted to continue fighting.
Casualties
Dead bodies on a truck in Grozny
Military casualties are unknown, but are estimated to run into the thousands of killed and wounded on both sides. The officially released figures on the Russian losses were 1,376 killed in action and 408 missing in action, yet the actual figure could be higher. According to Dudayev, 4,000 Russian soldiers died in the New Year's Eve attack alone (1,500 according to the Russian human rights defenders).
As of the civilian casualties, Sergei Kovalev, the Russian Duma's commissioner for human rights, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin's aide on human rights, who had been in Grozny during part of the fighting, estimated 27,000 people, many of them ethnic Russians, died in five weeks of fighting. Anatol Lieven, who was also in Grozny during the battle, in his book Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power put his estimates lower at about 5,000 killed civilians, with some 500 more killed by the Russian air raids prior to the battle.
International monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe described the scenes as "unimaginable catastrophe," while German Chancellor Helmut Kohl described the events as "sheer madness."
