(2 Jan 1995) STORY: CHECHNYA
LOCATION: GROZNY, CHECHNYA
DATE: 30-31 DECEMBER 1994
DURATION: 1.34
Outskirts burn as Russia launches major assault
Russian ground forces broke into Grozny on Saturday (31/12) after
launching a ferocious assault on the Chechen capital. Heavy
artillery and rocket fire ahead of the advance set numerous
buildings ablaze in the centre, including the rebel parliament.
The Chechen government immediately claimed it had repelled what it
called the long-expected Russian storming of Grozny. Defiant as
ever, President Dzhokhar Dudayev declared that tiny Chechnya was
winning a "moral victory" by still holding out after nearly three
weeks under siege. But Russia's military said Saturday night that
its troops controlled the railway station and many of the Chechen
government's buildings in Grozny. It promised to continue what it
called actions to disarm rebel fighters and restore order. The New
Year's Eve attack marked one of the bloodiest days in the
Kremlin's 20-day offensive against the secessionist republic. A
group of liberal Russian lawmakers visiting Grozny went on Chechen
TV Saturday night and urged President Boris Yeltsin: "Stop the
bloodshed." A day earlier, Yeltsin's chief of staff Sergei Filatov
had said it was too late for a non-violent solution. The assault
appeared to come from at least two directions, north and
southwest. But it was hard to pinpoint the action - thick smoke
from at least nine fires burning at the Lenin oil refinery and in
the industrial district turned the ravaged city as black as night
soon after the attack began in late morning. One prong of the
assault evidently came from the direction of Alkhan-Kala, a
strategic village just southwest of Grozny. At the same time, the
Chechen side reported fierce clashes on the northeastern outskirts
near the village of Petropavlovskaya. By mid-afternoon, the
picture was chaotic. Firefights were heard in the central,
northern and southwestern parts of the city. Rockets pounded the
centre and some fighters exchanged rounds of tracer bullets a few
hundred metres from the presidential palace.
SHOWS:
(GROZNY, CHECHNYA 31/12) Bombs exploding in distance in
outer Grozny. Chechen fighters running. Chechen mobile anti-
aircraft gun along road. Anti-aircraft vehicle circling in snow,
searching for enemy. Interior damaged building. Exterior damaged
building. Gas pipe burning outside home. CU burning pipe. People
climb through wall on way to shelter. People inside underground
shelter. CU boy in shelter. CU old woman. Woman patient wailing in
makeshift hospital. Injured man. Chechen fighter threatens to blow
up power station. Oil refinery burning. Chechen soldiers preparing
for battle. CU soldier. Truckload of soldiers going to front.
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