On the 30th anniversary of storming Grozny, eyewitnesses share memories

The New Year's assault of Grozny, launched by Russian militaries 30 years ago, forced residents to hide from shelling in basements and share leftover food with each other.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the storming of Grozny, launched by Russian troops on December 31, 1994, remained in memory for its continuous shooting and the awareness of the start of a real war, residents of Chechnya said on the 25th anniversary of the storming.

Several eyewitness reports about the New Year's assault of Grozny were posted in the website of the "Memorial" Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD)*.

In particular, the woman named E. said that on December 31, 1994, she lived in Dagestanskaya Street with her husband, sister, and aunt. "The storming began at night on December 31 ... From then on; we spent most of our time in the basement of our house. It was impossible to do otherwise. The shelling was too intense. More than forty of us gathered there, of different nationalities ... Water was brought to our basement by Chechen militants, who were visiting us. We gathered all the food that everyone had left," the woman said.

According to her story, at one night, when the shelling was especially intense, people heard "shell fragments hitting the door outside," and the radio news "said that first trams began running in Grozny." "Since then I can't listen to the news. These lies were especially sickening. We spent several days like that. The city centre was surrounded by Russian troops. Militants tried to persuade us to leave the city," she said.

The Grozny resident A.D. said that in 1994, he and two other students did an internship at the Chechen TV. "The night on December 31 brought me not only memories of the assault, but also a personal tragedy: my close friend Bilal Akhmedov, one of the two students who came with me to the TV, disappeared. He was very bright, talented and completely fearless. Formally, Bilal is listed as missing, but most likely he died in the area of the railway station in Grozny - the site of fierce fighting," the man said, noting that on the radio "it was impossible to listen to the official propaganda."

Another eyewitness to the assault said that in 1994 he was 15 years old; their family lived in the city centre. According to his story, in the basement of their five-storey house about 50 people were hiding. "In early January (of 1995), when the shelling and fighting became especially brutal, some residents began leaving the city if they had a chance. […] Many who died were buried right behind our house, or rather, dug in. It was too dangerous to take bodies to the cemetery," he said.

On January 11, the teenager was wounded. "We ran to the basement during another shelling … Before entering the basement, I stopped to let a woman go ahead. At that moment, a sniper shot at me. The bullet hit my leg," he said.

Let us remind you that on December 11, 1994, when Russian troops entered Chechnya, residents of the republic hoped until the very end that the conflict would end with a peace agreement of the parties.

*As reported on the website of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the reason for including on March 1, 2024, the unregistered "Memorial" Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD) into the roster of foreign agents was the spread of "inaccurate information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation, as well as the Russian Armed Forces."

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.