First Chechen War

First Chechen War
	Part of the Chechen–Russian; conflict, the Russo-Caucasian conflict, the Wars in the Caucasus and post-Soviet conflicts
	; A Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopter brought down by Chechen fighters near the Chechen capital of Grozny in 1994.
Date	11 December 1994 – 31 August 1996 (1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks and 6 days)
Location	Chechnya and parts of Ingushetia, Stavropol Krai and Dagestan
Belligerents
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria; Chechen Mujahideen	Russia Loyalist opposition;
Commanders and leaders
Dzhokhar Dudayev X; Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev; Aslan Maskhadov; Ruslan Gelayev; Shamil Basayev; Ibn Al-Khattab	Boris Yeltsin; Pavel Grachev; Anatoly Kulikov; Anatoly Romanov; Konstantin Pulikovsky; Viktor Vorobyov †
Units involved
Chechen Armed Forces	Russian Armed Forces
Strength
5,000–6,000 (late 1995)	40,000
Casualties and losses
3,000–10,000 killed	5,000–14,000
	20,000–100,000 civilians killed; 200,000+ civilians injured; 500,000+ civilians displaced

The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a conflict between the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Russian Federation from 1994 to 1996. After a mutually agreed on treaty and terms, the Russians withdrew until they invaded again three years later, in the Second Chechen War of 1999–2009.

During the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Chechnya came under the control of a secessionist regime led by Dzhokhar Dudayev. Russian president Boris Yeltsin supported anti-Dudayev militias until 1994, when he launched a military operation to "establish constitutional order in Chechnya". Thousands of Chechen civilians were killed in aerial bombings and urban warfare before Grozny was captured in March 1995, but a Russian victory was denied as efforts to establish control over the remaining lowlands and mountainous regions of Chechnya were met with fierce resistance and frequent surprise raids by Chechen guerrillas. Despite the killing of Dudayev in a Russian airstrike in April 1996, the recapture of Grozny by separatists in August brought about the Khasavyurt Accord ceasefire and Russia–Chechnya Peace Treaty in 1997.

The official Russian estimate of Russian military deaths was 5,500,^[5] though independent estimates range from 5,000^[4] to as high as 14,000.^[5] According to Aslan Maskhadov, approximately 2,800 Chechen fighters were killed, while independent sources estimate the number to be between 3,000 and 10,000.^[3] The number of Chechen civilian deaths was between 30,000 and 100,000. Over 200,000 Chechen civilians may have been injured, more than 500,000 people were displaced, and cities and towns were reduced to rubble across the republic.^[6]

^ Cite error: The named reference UN 1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Gall & Waal 1998, p. 173.
^ ^a ^b "Война, проигранная по собственному желанию". Archived from the original on 2023-02-13. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Кривошеев was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c Cite error: The named reference Jamestown was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "The War That Continues to Shape Russia, 25 Years Later". The New York Times. 2019-12-10. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2020-09-08.

[UN_1996-1] Cite error: The named reference UN 1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[FOOTNOTEGallWaal1998173-2] Gall & Waal 1998, p. 173.

[NVO-3] "Война, проигранная по собственному желанию". Archived from the original on 2023-02-13. Retrieved 2023-11-15.

[Кривошеев-4] Cite error: The named reference Кривошеев was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Jamestown-5] Cite error: The named reference Jamestown was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Higgins-6] "The War That Continues to Shape Russia, 25 Years Later". The New York Times. 2019-12-10. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2020-09-08.

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