The second Russian offensive saw a brutally uncompromising approach that levelled the Chechen capital to the ground
Regardless of who was behind the bombings in 1999, Putin now had the support of the Russian people to prosecute a second war in Chechnya. As he’d promised them, the conflict began with a massive aerial bombing campaign. Hundreds of sorties were flown throughout September 1999.
Grozny airport was rendered inoperable and oil refineries, bridges, telecommunication centres and power stations were all hit as the country’s infrastructure was gradually destroyed. Civilian areas were targeted, too, resulting in hundreds of deaths and approximately 100,000 refugees, many of whom fled to Georgia or Dagestan.
Eventually, on 1 October, Putin signalled the start of the ground offensive by declaring Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and his government to be illegitimate. Around 80,000 Russian troops now crossed the border. They met with little resistance – within four days they’d reached the Terek River and had seized the northern part of the country. Maskhadov’s appeal for peace was rejected by Putin, as was a request by the Chechens for NATO to intervene.
Wary of repeating the mistakes of 1994, the Russians proceeded cautiously. On 12 October, they crossed the Terek and, using heavy artillery and air strikes to smash everything ahead of them, approached Grozy in a two-pronged attack. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were swept up in the advance and either fled south or were interned in so-called filtration camps to prevent militias from springing up.
By 16 October, the Russians had captured the Tersky Heights. This strategic ridge put their artillery within range of Grozny and they now bombarded the city, firing an estimated 4,000 shells and rockets into Grozny each day. Five days into this bombardment a Scud missile struck Grozny’s crowded marketplace, killing 140 people and wounding hundreds more. Eight days after that, Russian aircraft attacked a refugee convoy on the Baku-Rostov highway, killing 25 people. This slaughter of civilians would become a leitmotif of the war.
By 12 November, Chechnya’s second-largest city Gudermes, 25 miles (40km) east of Grozny, was in Russian hands after the local warlords switched sides. Smaller settlements fell, too, including the symbolically significant village of Bamut, which had resisted repeated Russian attacks during the First Chechen War.
By early December, Russian forces had surrounded Grozny, with their commander General Viktor Kazantsev claiming it to be successfully blockaded. The Siege of Grozny now began in earnest and would continue through the harsh winter.
Artillery and airstrikes ha
