30 December 2004, 23:49
10 years since New Year's storm of Grozny
On December 31, it will be 10 years since Russian troops stormed the capital of Chechnya, Grozny. That attempt inflicted many losses on the federal soldiers. The New Year's storm of Grozny in the winter of 1994 became one of the most tragic pages of the first military campaign in Chechnya. Hundreds of bodies of Russian soldiers lied in the streets of the Chechen capital, and dozens of armored vehicles burnt in Grozny and its suburbs. Over 1,500 Russian soldiers were killed and went missing in the New Year's clashes, some sources say. Chechen separatists believe that the federal forces lost no less than 5,000 people during the storm of Grozny.
Russian soldiers occupied the presidential palace in the Chechen capital only in late January 2005, after separatists had already abandoned it. Clashes in Grozny lasted until late February 2005, rebel groups retreated then and went to submontane and mountainous districts of Chechnya.
Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent
