| Battle of Dolinskoye | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of First Chechen War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Russia |  Chechen Republic of Ichkeria | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Vakha Arsanov Hussein Ikshanov | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 200 killed [1] | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Dolinskoye (Dolinskoe, Dolinsky), which took place 25 kilometers northwest of the Chechen capital of Grozny, was the first major ground engagement of the First Chechen War.
The battle began on 12 December 1994, when six officers (including two colonels) and 13 enlisted men of the Russian Airborne Troops died in a surprise 9K51 Grad multiple rocket launcher attack on an advancing column of armored vehicles of the 106th Airborne Division and 56th Airborne Brigade. [2] The Russian side immediately retaliated with a helicopter gunship and ground attack aircraft airstrikes on the Chechen positions. [3]
By 22 December 1994, Dolinskoye continued to hold out against Russian fire. [4] The Russians lost 21 soldiers killed in the initial attack and admitted losing up to 200 men in the overall battle, according to the Chechen commander Hussein Ikshanov. [5]
Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a constituent republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe, close to the Caspian Sea. The republic forms a part of Russia's North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country of Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia-Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.
The First Chechen War, also known as the First Chechen Campaign, or First Russian-Chechen war was a rebellion by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the Russian Federation, fought from December 1994 to August 1996. The first war was preceded by the Russian Intervention in Ichkeria, in which Russia tried to covertly overthrow the Ichkerian government. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen guerrilla warfare and raids on the flatlands despite Russia's overwhelming advantages in firepower, manpower, weaponry, artillery, combat vehicles, airstrikes and air support. The resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces and the almost universal opposition of the Russian public to the conflict led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire with the Chechens in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later.
Akhmed Halidovich Zakayev is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister of the unrecognised Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI). He was also the Foreign Minister of the Ichkerian government, appointed by Aslan Maskhadov shortly after his 1997 election, and again in 2006 by Abdul Halim Sadulayev. During the First Chechen war Zakayev took part in the battles for Grozny and other military operations, as well as in high-level negotiations with the Russian side.
The Second Chechen War was an armed conflict in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from August 1999 to April 2009.
Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov was a Chechen politician who served as the third President of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Shamil Salmanovich Basayev also known by his kunya "Abu Idris", was a senior leader of the Chechen independence movement and terrorist.
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Vladimir Anatolyevich Shamanov is a retired Colonel General of the Russian Armed Forces, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Airborne Troops (VDV) from May 2009 to October 2016 and a former Russian politician. After his retirement in October 2016, Shamanov became head of the State Duma Defense Committee.
Salman Betyrovich Raduyev was one of the most important and notorious Chechen separatist field commanders. He operated in the period between 1994 and 1999 and was responsible for Kizlyar hostage taking raid. He was arrested in 2000 and died in Russian penal colony White Swan in 2002.
On 19 August 2002, a group of Chechen separatists armed with a man-portable air-defense system brought down a Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter in a minefield, which resulted in the death of 127 Russian soldiers in the greatest loss of life in the history of helicopter aviation. It was also the most deadly aviation disaster ever suffered by the Russian Armed Forces, as well as its worst loss of life in a single day since 1999.
The First Battle of Grozny was the Russian Army's invasion and subsequent conquest of the Chechen capital, Grozny, during the early months of the First Chechen War. The attack lasted from December 1994 to March 1995, resulted in the military occupation of the city by the Russian Army and rallied most of the Chechen nation around the government of Dzhokhar Dudayev.
Ruslan (Hamzat) Gelayev was a prominent commander in the Chechen separatist movement against Russia, in which he played a significant, yet controversial, military and political role in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gelayev was commonly viewed as an abrek and a well-respected, ruthless fighter. His operations spread well beyond the borders of Chechnya and even outside the Russian Federation and into Georgia. He was killed while leading a raid into the Russian Republic of Dagestan in 2004.
The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was a partially recognized secessionist government of the Checheno-Ingush ASSR. On 30 November 1991, Ingushetia would have a referendum in which the results dictated its separation from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, joining the Russian Federation instead as a constituent republic.
Doku Khamatovich Umarov ; also known as Dokka Umarov as well as by his Arabized name of Dokka Abu Umar; was a Chechen Mujahid in Russia. Umarov was a major military figure in both wars in Chechnya during the 1990s and 2000s, before becoming the leader of the greater insurgency in the North Caucasus. He was active mostly in south-western Chechnya, near and across the borders with Ingushetia and Georgia.
The 1999–2000 battle of Grozny was the siege and assault of the Chechen capital Grozny by Russian forces, lasting from late 1999 to early 2000. The siege and fighting left the capital devastated. In 2003, the United Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth. Between 5,000 and 8,000 civilians were killed during the siege, making it the bloodiest episode of the Second Chechen War.
The November 1994 Battle of Grozny was a covert attempt by Russian Intelligence services to oust the separatist Chechen government of Dzhokhar Dudayev, by seizing the Chechen capital of Grozny. The attack was conducted by armed formations of the opposition Provisional Council, led by Umar Avturkhanov, with a clandestine support of Russian Federation armor and aircraft on 26 November 1994. The fighting subsided after the first 10 hours, with the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria decisively repelling the assault.
The Shatoy ambush was an April 16, 1996, attack by forces of the Arab-born commander Ibn al-Khattab near the town of Shatoy in the southern mountains of Chechnya, during the First Chechen War.
The Battle for Height 776, part of the larger Battle of Ulus-Kert, was an engagement in the Second Chechen War that took place during fighting for control of the Argun River gorge in the highland Shatoysky District of central Chechnya, between the villages of Ulus-Kert and Selmentausen.
Abu al-Walid was a Saudi Arabian of the Ghamd tribe who fought as a "mujahid" volunteer in Central Asia, the Balkans, and the North Caucasus. He was killed in April 2004 in Chechnya by the Russian federal forces.
The Samashki massacre occurred on April 7–8, 1995, in the village of Samashki, at the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. Numerous civilians died as result of a Russian cleansing operation, The incident attracted wide attention in Russia and abroad.
Coordinates: 43°28′N43°34′E / 43.467°N 43.567°E
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