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. Russian special services and the army gave the puppet opposition money, weapons, instructors, tank crewmen and pilots in order to overthrow Dzhokhar Dudayev, the elected president of the Chechen Republic.
In the summer of 1994, Russia's Ministry for Nationalities Affairs and the FSK (a predecessor of today's FSB) helped the puppet opposition recruit armed fighters in Znamenskoye, a village in the northwest of Ichkeria, and in Urus-Martan, a town southwest of Grozny[1]. Russia allocated more than 150 billion rubles to the Provisional Council, the leadership of the puppet opposition, which it had confirmed at a congress on 3 June. In an analytical memorandum, the FSK named the head of the Provisional Council the most suitable candidate for support[1].
On 3 September 1994, the Russian government, in an address to the Chechen people, proposed that Dzhokhar Dudayev resign[1].
On 5 September 1994, the General Staff of the Russian army ordered that 10 armored personnel carriers and 6 combat helicopters with crews be handed over to the Provisional Council[1]. From these helicopters, Russian pilots fired rockets at residential houses in Ichkeria (see: "Indiscriminate Attacks"). In November, the Russian army handed tanks over to the council[1][2].
In September and October 1994, Russian officers trained more than a hundred fighters of the Provisional Council to drive T-62 tanks and fire army mortars at the "Prudboy" training ground near Volgograd, a city in the south of Russia[3][1].
In October 1994, Savostyanov, the head of the Moscow directorate of the FSK, ordered that Russian soldiers and officers who knew how to maintain armored vehicles and fight in them be found for the Provisional Council. The military counterintelligence of the FSK selected the candidates[4]. From 3 to 9 November, FSK officers travelled around military units near Moscow and signed contracts with tank crewmen[1][4].
In November 1994, Kolesnikov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian army, authorized sending the recruits to the Caucasus. Kotenkov, Russia's deputy minister for nationalities affairs, directed the dispatch, and by 16 November the recruits had been brought to Mozdok, a town in Russian-controlled North Ossetia near the border of the Chechen Republic[1]. Russia denied that it was sending its servicemen to fight for the Provisional Council (see: "Lies about Its Own Actions").
In the autumn of 1994, FSK officers fought on the side of the puppet opposition[1].
From September 1994 until the assault on Grozny on 26 November, fighters of the Provisional Council and Russian crews attacked Ichkeria. On 2 September, fighters of the council and a column of twelve tanks with Russian crews attacked Grozny. The Armed Forces of Ichkeria stopped them at the settlement of Dolinsky, northwest of Grozny, knocked out a tank and took eight men prisoner, among them, according to initial reports, Russian servicemen[5][6][7][1][8][9]. On 30 September, Russian pilots in four helicopters of the Provisional Council fired rockets at the "Severny" airport in Grozny and destroyed five civilian aircraft and two aircraft of the army of Ichkeria, and fighters of the puppet opposition blocked the entrances to the city[1][10][11]. Dzhokhar Dudayev rejected the Provisional Council's ultimatum to surrender within six hours, and the council's fighters dispersed without attacking Grozny[10][12]. On 15 October, fighters of the Provisional Council stormed Grozny from the south and from the north, and the Armed Forces of Ichkeria repelled the assault. The defenders took several dozen attackers prisoner, among them, according to various reports, 12 to 15 Russian officers[12], and on 16 October the council's fighters retreated to their bases in Znamenskoye and in Gekhi, a village southwest of Grozny[1].
On 17 November 1994, nine days before the assault on Grozny, a group of Russian officers headed by Kolesnikov, the Chief of the General Staff, flew from Moscow to Mozdok[1]. Valery Yakov, special correspondent of the Moscow newspaper Izvestia, wrote about the preparation of the assault in November 1996: "There, in Mozdok, at the 'Arsenal' base, the contract soldiers [recruited Russian servicemen]… trained the Chechen crews [of the Provisional Council]… In all, the contract soldiers received 40 brand-new tanks, 16 of which had 'Russian' crews"[13][4]. On 26 November, fighters of the Provisional Council and Russian tank crewmen under the command of Zhukov, the deputy commander of a Russian army corps from Volgograd, stormed Grozny[1][4]. Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the vice president of the Chechen Republic, wrote in his memoirs that in the morning he saw the start of the assault from the window of his office in the presidential palace: "on the northeastern outskirts of the city, from the direction of Tolstoy-Yurt [a village north of Grozny where the fighters of the Provisional Council were stationed], tank and artillery fire began to thunder"[14]. The tanks reached the center of Grozny, where fighters of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria shot them up with grenade launchers[1]. The defenders routed the attackers and, according to the government of the Chechen Republic, took 68 Russian servicemen prisoner[15]. Among the prisoners were soldiers and officers of the Russian Kantemirovskaya Tank Division from near Moscow[16].
Human rights defenders of Memorial write that without Russia's military help the puppet opposition could not have overthrown Dzhokhar Dudayev[1].
After the defeat of 26 November, the Provisional Council withdrew its fighters to its bases[17][1]. Fifteen days later, on 11 December 1994, the Russian army openly invaded the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (see: "Military Intervention")[1].