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. The occupiers shielded themselves with peaceful Chechens from the fire of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria.
Russian soldiers led Chechens out of the basements where they were hiding from shelling, took men from their homes and seized doctors and patients in a hospital. The occupiers put them on armored vehicles or placed them in front of themselves so that the soldiers of the army of Ichkeria would not shoot[1][2]. Russian servicemen threatened to burn or shoot the captured Chechens if the defenders fired or did not hand over captives[3]. Russian soldiers released some Chechens from the human shield after a few hours and took others to their bases. There the occupiers put them in pits and beat them (see: "Torture and Abuse")[3].
On 6-8 March 1996, when the army of Ichkeria encircled Russian checkpoint No. 6 in Grozny, an officer of the Russian commandant's office of the city advised the soldiers at the checkpoint over the radio to seize a couple of Chechen families and shield themselves with them. The soldiers at the post did not do so[4][1][5].
From 15 March 1996, the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (predecessors of today's Rosgvardia) and the Russian 58th Army stormed Samashki, a village in the west of Ichkeria (see: "Military Intervention")[1]. On 17 March, Russian soldiers drove Chechens out of the basement of a house on Rabochaya Street, where they were hiding from shelling. A major, the commander of a Russian unit, forced three women and the three Kireyev boys - aged five, eleven and twelve - to climb onto an armored vehicle[1][3]. Leila Gaerbekova, one of the three women on the vehicle, told the human rights defender Andrei Mironov on 4 May 1996: "At gunpoint they put us on a tank [an armored vehicle] on Rabochaya Street. Three children, their mother Koka, me and my sister Anya Gaerbekova. <...> They placed us in front of the tank and said: 'If a single bullet comes from over there, we will burn you'. And there were no bullets from over there, nothing". The soldiers placed almost everyone who had been hiding in the basement in front of the vehicle and led them at gunpoint for about 300 meters, to the canal in the middle of the village. Between 12 and 2 p.m., the major told the Chechens to disperse. Khizir Khachukayev, the commander of the unit of the army of Ichkeria in Samashki, told the human rights defenders of "Memorial" that his soldiers did not fire at the armored vehicles with people on them and were forced to retreat, and put up their main resistance in the center of the village once the occupiers had let the people out of the human shield[1][3].
On 15 March 1996, in Samashki, Russian soldiers led two elderly Chechens, the owner of a house on Vygonnaya Street and his neighbor, out of the house, put them on top of an armored vehicle and drove them around under bullets for six or seven hours. After nine in the evening, the occupiers' commander let both of them go[3].
On 10 August 1996, when the Armed Forces of Ichkeria were liberating Grozny, soldiers of the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs searched City Hospital No. 9 in Grozny. For two days, the occupiers held about 500 patients, their relatives, doctors and nurses hostage (see: "Hostage-Taking"). Movsar Tembulatov, the deputy chief physician, told the human rights defenders of "Memorial" and Human Rights Watch in the hospital on 13 October 1996 how Russian soldiers went down into the basement: "they put me or one of the other doctors in front as some kind of cover, with a submachine gunner behind"[3][1].
On 12 August 1996, soldiers of the army of Ichkeria repelled an attack by Russian troops trying to break through to the occupiers encircled in the hospital. The commander of the Russian servicemen in the hospital agreed to lead his soldiers out in exchange for captives and demanded 100 doctors, nurses, walking patients and their relatives as a human shield for himself. Khadis Malsagov, one of the hostages, told the human rights defenders of "Memorial" on 24 August 1996: "As soon as everyone had moved away from the hospital, they [the Russian soldiers] line the women up and say they will shoot them if the captives are not handed over to them immediately". The soldiers of Khizir Khachukayev handed over all the captives. At the gates of their base, the occupiers released the people from the human shield. When the people were returning to the hospital, Russian troops fired several dozen mortar shells at it, killed the nurse Toita Kutukhanova and wounded two nurses, two doctors and a woman patient (see: "Indiscriminate Attacks"). On the evening of 12 August and the morning of 13 August, the patients and medics left the hospital for the building of the International Committee of the Red Cross nearby[3][1].
On 12 August 1996, soldiers of the 101st Brigade of the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs took men from the blocks of Grozny around the "15th Gorodok", their base on Lenin Street, and shielded themselves with them on the way there (see: "Hostage-Taking")[1]. Two of them, a father and son, the occupiers tied with wire to an armored personnel carrier, drove under fire to Khankala, the main base of the occupation troops on the eastern outskirts of the city, and released on 16 August[3].
The 1996 report of "Memorial" says that Russian servicemen and officers of Russian agencies in Ichkeria systematically took hostages and shielded themselves with human shields. According to the report, the occupiers shielded themselves with Chechens during the last six months of the war, from March to August 1996, most often the soldiers of the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs[3].
The prosecutors of the Russian army did not investigate how Russian troops shielded themselves with Chechens during assaults and held no one accountable for it (see: "Impunity of Perpetrators")[2][1].
In August 1996, the Armed Forces of Ichkeria liberated Grozny from the occupiers, forcing Russia to the negotiating table[6]. On 31 August 1996, peace agreements were signed in Khasavyurt (see: "Sham Treaties")[7]. On 31 December 1996, the last Russian troops left the republic[1].