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 declared ceasefires or signed them with Ichkeria, while the occupation forces went on bombing villages and launched new offensives.
Russian president Yeltsin declared an end to hostilities by decree and in televised addresses to the citizens of Russia[1][2]. Russian prime minister Chernomyrdin, commanders of the occupation forces and Russian delegations agreed on ceasefires with representatives of Ichkeria[1]. Russia scheduled ceasefires before Yeltsin's annual address to the Russian parliament on 16 February 1995 and before the Russian presidential election in the summer of 1996[1].
On the night of 10 January 1995, the Russian government declared a 48-hour ceasefire and demanded that the Armed Forces of Ichkeria surrender, and in the daytime the Russian army continued its assault on Grozny[1][3]. On 17 January, Russian prime minister Chernomyrdin agreed with the ministers of Ichkeria on a ceasefire in several stages, and on the night of 19 January Russian pilots dropped concrete-piercing bombs on the presidential palace in Grozny[4][1]. On 13 February, Kulikov, commander of the occupation forces, agreed with Aslan Maskhadov, chief of the Main Staff of the army of Ichkeria, on a "truce" until 19 February, and on 18 February Russian artillerymen shelled the positions of the army of Ichkeria east of Grozny[1].
On 26 April 1995, Russian president Yeltsin signed a decree ending hostilities in Ichkeria from 28 April to 12 May. The decree says: "in the event of armed provocations in the ChR [the Chechen Republic], the actions of the units and formations of the temporary joint forces [Russian troops]… shall be determined in accordance with the situation"[1][5]. General Troshev, who in the spring of 1995 commanded the troops of the Russian defense ministry in Ichkeria, wrote in his memoirs: "We understood that the declaration of the moratorium [the end of hostilities] was of a purely political nature — the country was preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Great Victory…"[6]. On 9 May, heads of foreign states came to Moscow for the celebration[1].
From 28 April to 12 May 1995, Russian soldiers went on killing Chechen civilians[1]. On 1 May, a Russian sniper killed six-year-old Zulikhan Yunusova in Starye Atagi, a village south of Grozny. Isa Adayev, director of the Chechen National Museum, was at her funeral and in May 1996 told the public tribunal of the Russian Glasnost Foundation in Prague: "A few days later, at a meeting with the military commandant, it turned out that the soldiers had been drunk and were shooting on a bet: would they hit or not. That is how they killed the girl"[3]. On 10 May, Russian soldiers from the commandant's office of the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny mortally wounded Sh. Chantiev at the wheel of his car[1]. On 11 May, two days after the celebration in Moscow, Russian pilots bombed Shatoy, a district center in the mountains in the south of Ichkeria[7]. It is unknown how many such crimes the occupation forces committed from 28 April to 12 May 1995. On 12 May, as soon as the decree expired, the Russian army resumed its offensive on the mountain districts of Ichkeria[1].
On 30 July 1995, Russia signed an agreement with Ichkeria on the cessation of hostilities (see: "Sham Treaties"). From 17 August, Russian pilots bombed Roshni-Chu and Tangi-Chu, villages south-west of Grozny, and on 9 October the occupiers launched a new offensive[7][1].
On 31 March 1996, Russian president Yeltsin, by decree No. 435, announced "the cessation, from 24.00 hours on 31 March 1996, of military operations on the territory of the Chechen Republic"[8]. On 1 April, Tikhomirov, commander of the occupation forces, announced that he would continue the war, and on 4 April Russian soldiers stormed Goyskoye, a village south-west of Grozny, and killed 26 Chechens in the fighting[1]. On 27 May, Russian prime minister Chernomyrdin and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, acting president of Ichkeria, signed a ceasefire agreement in Moscow, and on the evening of 3 June Russian pilots bombed villages of the Nozhay-Yurt and Vedeno districts in the south-east of Ichkeria[9][1][10]. On 10 June in Nazran, Russia undertook to stop the bombing and to remove its checkpoints by 7 July, and on 9 July, six days after Yeltsin's victory in the Russian presidential election, the occupiers launched a new offensive[9][11][1]. On 13 August, Pulikovsky, acting commander of the occupation forces, met Aslan Maskhadov, chief of the Main Staff of the army of Ichkeria, and Ichkeria announced that they had agreed to cease fire from noon on 14 August. On 14 August, Russian pilots bombed Komsomolskoye, a village north-east of Grozny, and killed nine Chechens[12][13]. On 18 August, the command of the occupation forces concluded a ceasefire agreement with the army of Ichkeria, and on the night of 20 August Russian pilots resumed the bombing of Grozny[14][1].
Sergei Kovalyov, head of the Observer Mission of Russian human rights defenders, wrote in the American magazine The New York Review of Books on 11 May 1995 that the ceasefires declared by Russian commanders were disingenuous concessions to domestic and foreign pressures, not the start of a genuine peace process[15]. Human rights defenders of Memorial write that Russia used the "truce" of 1995 to prepare elections and entrench the puppet government, and that Yeltsin's "peace plan" of 1996 remained in force until the election results were tallied in Russia[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, Russia signed peace agreements with Ichkeria in Khasavyurt and recognized in them "the inadmissibility of the use of armed force or the threat of its use in resolving disputed questions" (see: "Sham Treaties")[17]. On 31 December 1996, the last Russian troops left the republic[1]. Three years after the agreements in Khasavyurt, Russia attacked Ichkeria again. On 21 September 1999, Russian pilots began bombing Grozny, and on 29 September the Russian army invaded the republic[1].