Battle of Grozny (August 1996)

Battle of Grozny (August 1996)
Part of First Chechen War
Date August 6–20, 1996 (2 weeks) Location Grozny, Chechnya 43°19′N 45°41′E / 43.31°N 45.69°E / 43.31; 45.69 Result Chechen victory Khasav-Yurt Accord Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya De facto independence of the Chechen Republic
Belligerents
Russia Loyalist opposition	Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Commanders and leaders
Konstantin Pulikovsky Vyacheslav Ovchinikov [ru] Doku Zavgayev Said-Magomed Kakiyev Alu Alkhanov	Aslan Maskhadov Shamil Basayev Ruslan Gelayev Doku Umarov Akhmed Zakayev Ibn al-Khattab
Strength
Initially 12,000[1][2][3] 200 IFVs/APCs[4]	Initially 877[1][2][3] (Up to 3,000 afterwards)[5]
Casualties and losses
Russian claim: Up to 500 killed[2] 1,407 wounded[1][2] 182 missing[1][2] 18 tanks destroyed[4] 69 IFVs/APCs destroyed[4] 4 helicopters destroyed[3] Chechen claim: At least 2,500 casualties[6]	Unknown
Estimated 2,000 or more civilians killed[1]

The Battle of Grozny of August 1996, also known as Operation Jihad or Operation Zero Option, when Chechen fighters regained and then kept control of Chechnya's capital Grozny in a surprise raid.^[7] The Russian Federation had conquered the city in a previous battle for Grozny that ended in February 1995 and subsequently posted a large garrison of federal and republican Ministry of the Interior (MVD) troops in the city.^[8]

The much smaller Chechen forces infiltrated Grozny and either routed the MVD forces or split them into many pockets of resistance. Chechen fighters then beat back the Russian Ground Forces units that had been sent to eject the fighters and rescue their own trapped forces.^[8] The final result was a ceasefire that effectively ended the First Chechen War of 1994–1996.