The Russian military stated that 499 Russian soldiers were killed in Chechnya in 2001. [1]
The Second Chechen War took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 to April 2009.
The 1999–2000 battle of Grozny or Operation Wolf Hunt was the siege and assault of the Chechen capital Grozny by Russian forces, lasting from late 1999 to early 2000. This siege and assault of the Chechen capital resulted in the widespread devastation of Grozny. In 2003, the United Nations designated Grozny as the most destroyed city on Earth due to the extensive damage it suffered. The battle had a devastating impact on the civilian population. It is estimated that between 5,000 and 8,000 civilians were killed during the siege, making it the bloodiest episode of the Second Chechen War.
Human rights violations were committed by the warring sides during the second war in Chechnya. Both Russian officials and Chechen rebels have been regularly and repeatedly accused of committing war crimes including kidnapping, torture, murder, hostage taking, looting, rape, decapitation, and assorted other breaches of the law of war. International and humanitarian organizations, including the Council of Europe and Amnesty International, have criticized both sides of the conflict for blatant and sustained violations of international humanitarian law.
In June 2000, the North Caucasian Chechen separatist-led Chechen insurgents added suicide bombing to their tactics in their struggle against Russia. Since then, there have been dozens of suicide attacks within and outside the republic of Chechnya, resulting in thousands of casualties among Russian security personnel and civilians. The profiles of the suicide bombers have varied, as have the circumstances surrounding the bombings.
The Battle of Grozny of August 1996, also known as Operation Jihad or Operation Zero Option, when Chechen fighters recaptured Chechnya's capital Grozny in a surprise military operation. Russian forces had captured the city in a previous battle that ended in February 1995 and subsequently stationed a large garrison of federal and republican Ministry of the Interior (MVD) troops in the city.
The Kizlyar–Pervomayskoye hostage crisis, also known in Russia as the terrorist act in Kizlyar, occurred in January 1996 during the First Chechen War. What began as a raid by Chechen separatist forces led by Salman Raduyev against a federal military airbase near Kizlyar, Dagestan, became a hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians, most of whom were quickly released. It culminated in a battle between the Chechens and Russian special forces in the village of Pervomayskoye, which was destroyed by Russian artillery fire. Although the Chechens escaped from the siege with some of their hostages, at least 26 hostages and more than 200 combatants on both sides died. One third of the homes in Pervomayskoye were destroyed.
Arbi Alautdinovich Barayev was a Chechen warlord who in 1996 became the founder and first leader of the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) in Chechnya.
The Battle of Komsomolskoye took place in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War. Beginning on 6 March 2000 and lasting until 24 March 2000, it resulted in the deaths of more than 50 Russian soldiers and hundreds of Chechen militants over the course of two weeks of siege warfare. An unknown number of civilians were killed in the fighting as well. The fighting resulted in the destruction of most of the Chechen separatist units commanded by Ruslan Gelayev. Scores of Chechens were taken prisoner by the Russian military, and only a few survived the ensuing Komsomolskoye massacre. Marked by fierce urban combat, the Battle of Komsomolskoye was the bloodiest of the entire conflict.
The 2007 Shatoy Mi-8 crash occurred on April 27, 2007, when a Russian Armed Forces Mil Mi-8 helicopter carrying special forces troops and officers crashed in mountainous terrain in southern Chechnya, killing all 20 people on board.
Aiza Gazuyeva was a Chechen woman, known for detonating an explosive device that killed General Gaidar Gadzhiyev, a major general of the Russian Army, on November 29, 2001. Despite being personally motivated and not political, it was one of the first notable shahidka attacks to occur in Russia, and Gazuyeva became a semi-legendary figure among in Chechen society.