in the campaign “First Russian-Chechen War (1994–1996)”
In the autumn of 1994, Russia attacked the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria under the name of a puppet opposition, and on 11 December 1994 the Russian army openly invaded the republic. Russia presented its attacks as a forced response and shifted the blame for the war onto Ichkeria.
Russian President Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin, chairman of the government, Defense Minister Grachev and the commanders of the occupation troops declared the offensives of the Russian army a response to attacks and provocations by the army of Ichkeria, and blamed the leadership of Ichkeria for the breakdown of negotiations[1]. The commanders said this to journalists of Russian news agencies, radio and television[1][2].
On the night of 29 November 1994, Russian President Yeltsin declared that the fighting in Ichkeria could not be stopped, and threatened to use all the forces of the state if the army of Ichkeria and the puppet opposition did not lay down their arms within 48 hours[3][4]. Russia itself had armed the puppet opposition and led it into battle, and on 29 November the Security Council of Russia decided to start the war[1].
On 18 February 1995, during the "ceasefire", Russian artillerymen shelled the positions of the army of Ichkeria near Shali, Argun and Gudermes, towns to the east of Grozny, and the defenders did not return fire (see: "Sham Ceasefire")[1]. On 19 February, the Russian government declared that the army of Ichkeria had attacked Russian units on the southern outskirts of Grozny and wrecked the negotiations[1][5].
On 7 April 1995, the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (predecessors of today's Rosgvardia) stormed Samashki, a village in the west of Ichkeria. On 7 and 8 April, the occupiers killed 103 peaceful Chechens in the village (see: "Mass Killings of Civilians")[6]. On the evening of 7 April, Russian television channels, citing the military, reported that fighters of the army of Ichkeria had shot the village elders. That day, Russian soldiers had fired on the cars in which the elders were travelling, and all eight people survived (see: "Lies about Its Own Actions")[6]. On 1 May 1995, Sergei Kovalyov, a deputy of the Russian parliament, said at a hearing in the US Congress that this report had served as a pretext for a punitive action against the village[7]. In July 1995, six of the ten deputies of the Russian parliament's commission that investigated the causes of the war wrote in their conclusion that the command of the occupation troops had decided to storm Samashki "after yet another killing of three servicemen (border guards)"[6][8][9]. The border guards had been killed in January 1995, three months before the storming, in the neighboring stanitsa of Assinovskaya[6].
After unknown persons made an assassination attempt in Grozny on 6 October 1995 on Romanov, the commander of the occupation troops, Russian President Yeltsin on 9 October and Defense Minister Grachev on 10 October blamed the attempt on supporters of Dzhokhar Dudayev, the president of Ichkeria. Russia suspended negotiations with Ichkeria and ordered the troops to resume the offensive[1][10]. On 14 December, the Armed Forces of Ichkeria liberated Gudermes, the second-largest town of the republic, and the occupiers stormed it until 20 December and killed at least 267 townspeople (see: "Mass Killings of Civilians")[1]. On 26 December, Shkirko, the commander of the occupation troops, stated that whoever opens fire first is to blame for the deaths, and that the fighters of the army of Ichkeria attack first[2].
In January 1996, the Russian government wrote to the UN Secretary-General that Russia had from the very beginning wanted to settle the matter by negotiations, and that supporters of Dzhokhar Dudayev, the president of Ichkeria, were wrecking the peace process with provocations[11]. In late January, Chernomyrdin, chairman of the Russian government, in a letter to deputies of the Russian parliament, blamed the leadership of Ichkeria for the breakdown of negotiations and promised to launch propaganda before new strikes on the republic. The head of the government warned that casualties were inevitable, including among peaceful Chechens[1].
On 7 May 1996, the crews of five Russian helicopters fired rockets at Urus-Martan, a town south-west of Grozny where there had been no fighting for a year and a half, and killed five Chechens at the market (see: "Indiscriminate Attacks")[1][12]. Fatima Ashgerieva, who was travelling by bus to Urus-Martan that day, told the public tribunal of the Russian Glasnost Foundation in Prague in May 1996: "We did not hear a single shot from the direction of Urus-Martan, only shots from the helicopters"[13]. On 10 May, Russian pilots again killed one Chechen in Urus-Martan and seriously wounded eight, among them four children. On 12 May, the crews of Russian helicopters killed 20-year-old Khasmagomed Arsemikov and wounded eight women[1][13].
On 12 May 1996, Tikhomirov, the commander of the occupation troops, justified the strike on Urus-Martan on the Vesti program of the RTR television channel: "There was at the same time an attempt to provoke actions by the federal [Russian] troops… And at the same time fire at the helicopters. Which, of course, provoked retaliatory actions by the federal troops"[1]. On 13 May, officials of the Russian-controlled Urus-Martan district said on the Vremya program of the ORT television channel that there were no armed units in the town and that no one had fired at the Russian helicopters[14]. On 13, 14 and 17 May, police of the occupation administration and the Russian military searched houses in Urus-Martan but did not find a single fighter of the army of Ichkeria[1].
On 9 July 1996, a month after Russia and Ichkeria agreed on a ceasefire in Nazran, a town in Russian-controlled Ingushetia, the occupiers began a new offensive (see: "Sham Ceasefire")[15]. On 17 July, while Russian pilots were bombing the surroundings of Shatoy and Vedeno, villages in the mountains in the south of Ichkeria, Chernomyrdin, chairman of the Russian government, stated that Ichkeria had been the first to resort to provocation, contrary to the agreements signed in Moscow and Nazran[1].
In August 1996, the Armed Forces of Ichkeria liberated Grozny from the occupiers, forcing Russia to the negotiating table[16]. On 31 August 1996, peace agreements were signed in Khasavyurt, a town in Russian-controlled Dagestan (see: "Sham Treaties")[17]. Three years later, on 21 September 1999, Russian pilots began bombing Grozny, and on 29 September the Russian army invaded the republic again[1]. Russia officially called the new war a "counter-terrorist operation"[1].