Russia Claims ‘Breakthrough’ in Chechnya

Grozny, the war-ravaged capital of separatist Chechnya, appeared to be in the hands of advancing federal forces Wednesday as Russian Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev claimed “an irreversible breakthrough” in the war.

Sergeyev asserted that Russian forces had killed 586 rebel fighters as they attempted to force their way past Russian troops encircling the city. The rebels said thousands of Islamic separatists who had succeeded in holding off the Russians for months had abandoned the city.

“The operation of wiping out the bandit formations in Grozny has been carried out brilliantly,” said Sergeyev, Russia’s top military official.

Russian authorities stopped short of claiming control of Grozny, reporting that there was still fighting in some parts of the city. The Chechen rebels, through their Internet Web site, https://www.kavkaz.org, contended that the Russians were fighting only shadows.

Both sides have been known to misrepresent facts during the fierce conflict, in particular minimizing their own casualties and exaggerating the losses of their foes.

Sergeyev’s assertion that Russian forces had killed 586 insurgents in one night far exceeded any earlier claims of losses inflicted on the rebels. The death toll could not be verified independently. Russian television showed photos of five bodies, but it was unclear when the shots were taken.

Sergei V. Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin’s chief spokesman on the Chechen war, said that many rebels died as they tried to cross a minefield and that neither side could reach the bodies safely. The danger from land mines did not prevent the Russians from providing the precise count of 586 dead.

But taken together, the scope and detail of the reports from both sides indicated that, after weeks of vicious fighting, the situation in Grozny had changed dramatically.

In many ways, the conflict is following the same pattern as the first Chechen war of 1994-96. In early 1995, Russian troops seized Grozny from rebels who escaped to the mountains and regrouped. A year later, the rebels drove the Russians out of Grozny and secured a peace agreement with Moscow.

The Chechen rebels, who initiated the latest conflict last August by invading the neighboring republic of Dagestan in a bid to establish an Islamic state in the Caucasus region, had acknowledged that they would eventually be forced to abandon Grozny.

The main focus of the war will now shift to the mountainous terrain of southern Chechnya, where a rebel force also estimated in the thousands has been battling Russian troops.

Russian officials, who have claimed for more than a month that Grozny was encircled, denied reports that 2,000 rebels had broken through Russian lines and were headed to the mountains.

However, Beslan Gantemirov, commander of a pro-Moscow force in Chechnya, said that about 3,500 rebels had escaped the siege of Grozny during the past three days.

“According to our information, there are very few people [rebels] left in the city of Grozny,” Gantemirov told NTV television. “By our estimates, there is no one there now who could put up even a semblance of a fight with the authorities.”

Gantemirov, a former Grozny mayor who was convicted of embezzling public funds, was released from jail last year by then-President Boris N. Yeltsin to fight on the side of the government.

Sergeyev said the Chechen losses enabled Russian forces to advance through the capital much more quickly than planned while sustaining fewer casualties than expected.

“The rebel casualties are so high that it already begins to tell on the situation in Grozny, allowing our troops to move forward three times as fast as before,” he said. “So the operation will end much sooner and with significantly fewer casualties on our side.”

By all accounts, fighting in Chechnya has been extremely fierce over the past week. The Chechens acknowledged losing three top commanders as they sought to escape Grozny. The Russians lost Col. Nikolai Maidanov, a top helicopter pilot who was once honored as a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Warlord Shamil Basayev, one of the main rebel leaders, acknowledged Wednesday that he had been wounded in the leg by a small shell fragment but denied reports that the injury had required the amputation of his leg.

“I’m alive, and I’m healthy,” the rebels’ Web site quoted Basayev as saying. “My leg has been wounded by a splinter. I’ll continue the struggle to defeat the enemy.”

Russia, which has been sharply criticized for restricting press coverage of the war, released Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky nearly two weeks after he was arrested while leaving Grozny.

Babitsky, a reporter for the U.S.-sponsored radio network, had been reporting from the Chechen side of the war. He was held for five days before Russia acknowledged his arrest. He remains under investigation for allegedly aiding the rebels.