Russia Says It’s on Verge of Seizing a Key Chechen Town

Moscow said Wednesday that Russian forces were poised to capture a key town on the outskirts of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, amid reports of a major upsurge in fighting in the south of the separatist province.

Russian Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev said troops would capture the strategic town of Argun guarding the eastern gateway to rebel-held Grozny within two or three days. It would be the third major town to fall under their control.

“The Chechen town of Argun is sealed off and, I think, within two or three days, it will be freed from rebel fighters with the help of residents,” Sergeyev said in televised comments during an inspection of a Moscow-based infantry division.

Rebels said fierce new battles were underway in or near villages on the eastern approach to Argun and the western approach to Grozny. Fleeing refugees said civilians were trapped in villages that were being stormed by Russian troops.

Itar-Tass news agency reported that Argun’s residents had asked the troops to stop shelling their community, saying they had already chased out Islamic fighters, as locals had done in Gudermes and Achkhoi-Martan last month.

Sergeyev also said Moscow’s 9-week-old military operation against Islamic militants based in Chechnya should last no longer than three more months.

“The bandits find themselves in a worsening situation. . . . The operation may last one, two or three months,” he said.

Refugees from Chechnya arriving in the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia said Russian troops were storming villages around Grozny, killing or wounding many civilians.

“Over the last two days, they have been storming my village,” said Dasha Dudayeva, a refugee from Alkhan-Yurt, six miles from Grozny.

“There are many dead and wounded, but they haven’t taken [the village] yet,” said Dudayeva, who fled the village on foot, then took a bus to a makeshift tent city in Ingushetia.

Moscow has come under fire from the West for its use of force in Chechnya and its reluctance to allow a mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to visit the region, despite an earlier pledge to do so.

But it has given the go-ahead for an official from the Council of Europe to visit nearby regions to assess the plight of refugees who are now believed to number more than 200,000.

Russian troops pressed their offensive Wednesday, aiming to completely surround the capital and launching bombing raids against about 30 villages in the south, the independent NTV network reported from Moscow’s main military base of Mozdok outside Chechnya.

Russian troops are now in control of low-lying northern districts and are pressing in from the east and west on Grozny, which Moscow says will be completely surrounded this month.

Military officials announced last week the start of a new phase of the operation, saying they would now pursue Chechen rebels into the mountains. They followed that announcement with a week of the heaviest strikes yet on Grozny.