Battle of Grozny (1994–95)

1994-95 First Battle of Grozny
Part of the First Chechen War
A Chechen militia fighter takes cover behind a burned-out Russian BMP-2 armoured vehicle. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev
Date 31 December 1994 – 8 February 1995 (small scale fighting continued until March 6, 1995) Location Grozny, Chechnya, Russia Result Pyrrhic Russian victory
Belligerents
Russia	Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Commanders and leaders
Pavel Grachev Ivan Babichev Anatoly Kvashnin Vadim Orlov Lev Rokhlin Vladimir Shamanov Nikolay Staskov Viktor Vorobyov Ivan Savin †	Aslan Maskhadov Turpal-Ali Atgeriev Shamil Basayev Ruslan Gelayev Salman Raduyev Akhmed Zakayev
Strength
60,000 (est.) December 31: 38,000 men total (6,000–10,000 entering Grozny)	2,300to 12,000 December 31: Officially up to 1,000 (5,000 according to Western estimates)
Casualties and losses
1,426 killed ≈500 missing 4,670 wounded 96 captured (official figure) 62 tanks destroyed 163 other armored vehicles destroyed	6,900 killed 471 captured (Russian claim)
35,000 civilians, including 5,000 children.

The First Battle of Grozny was the Russian Army's invasion and subsequent conquest of the Chechen capital, Grozny, during the early months of the First Chechen War. The attack lasted from December 1994 to March 1995, resulted in the military occupation of the city by the Russian Army and rallied most of the Chechen nation around the separatist government of Dzhokhar Dudayev.

The initial assault resulted in very high Russian Army casualties and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. It took them another two months of heavy fighting, and a change in their tactics, before they were able to capture Grozny. The battle caused enormous destruction and casualties amongst the civilian population and saw the heaviest bombing campaign in Europe since the end of World War II. Chechen separatist forces recaptured the city in August 1996, ending the war.

The Chechen fighters had the advantage in that they were highly motivated and familiar with the terrain. As Soviet citizens, they spoke and were educated in Russian and had served in the Soviet armed forces. Many (like their Russian adversaries) had Soviet uniforms. Chechen units were divided into combat groups consisting of 15 to 20 personnel, subdivided into three or four-man fire teams. A fire team consisted of an anti-tank gunner, usually armed with Russian-made RPG-7s or RPG-18s, as well as a machine gunner and a rifleman. To destroy Russian armoured vehicles in Grozny, five or six hunter-killer fire teams deployed at ground level, in second and third stories, and in basements. The snipers and machine gunners would pin down the supporting infantry while the antitank gunners would engage the armoured vehicle aiming at the top, rear and sides of vehicles.

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