November 8, 1999
Web posted at: 12:38 p.m. EST (1738 GMT)

In this story: Casualty dispute Russia: No cease-fire RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wires reports

MOSCOW (CNN) -- With reinforcements moving into place around Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city, Russian forces pressed their Chechen campaign overnight Sunday and into the day on Monday.

The Russians occupy high ground above the Chechen capital of Grozny and have surrounded Gudermes, a city that troops have pounded for weeks with artillery and airstrikes.

"Extra Interior Minister troops will be in need for the onslaught and further checking of Gudermes," said military spokesman Maj. Alexei Vasin. "We will not move until enough troops are collected."

Moscow sent troops into Chechnya on September 30 after Islamic rebels twice invaded the neighboring Russian Republic of Dagestan. Since then, the troops have steadily marched across Chechnya's northern third, intending to restore Russian control over the region.

Moscow lost control of Chechnya following the 1994-1996 war, which cost the Russians thousands of soldiers in an attempt to quash an independence movement there.

Russia now insists it is keeping its casualties to a minimum, getting extensive use out of airstrikes and artillery attacks that keep soldiers further from harm's way.

At the same time, Russia says it has inflicted huge losses among Islamic rebels, accused by the Kremlin of organizing a series of bombings in Russia that killed 300 people. The rebels deny the charge.

But Chechen authorities are equally adamant that Russian attacks have killed more innocent civilians than rebels; the Chechens claim as many as 4,000 civilians have been killed in the past six weeks. Russia denies targeting any civilians and says it is only targeting Islamic militants.

More than 200,000 Chechens have fled their homes rather than risk a repeat of the earlier war; most of them fled to the bordering Russian Republic of Ingushetia.

After closing the Chechnya-Ingushetia border last week, the Russians have reopened the passage, but the intense security searches at the checkpoint have kept the flow of civilians to a trickle.

A delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was to visit the border area later this week, but a senior Russian minister has accused the West of dual standards in loudly expressing concern about Chechnya while remaining quiet about the humanitarian situation in former Yugoslavia.

"Is it really a concern about humanitarian problems?" asked Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. "We are open to that and confirm that today. But those organizations who we welcome in the Caucasus, why are they so indifferent to the situation in Yugoslavia?"

Ivanov made the comments after a meeting with several Western diplomats, an apparent attempt to demonstrate that Russia is more than eager to discuss the Chechen crisis with concerned outsiders.

But a Russian source said officials had also made clear a point the Kremlin says is not open to discussion: The Chechen crisis is a domestic matter, and it will be dealt with on Russia's terms alone.

But Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, considered by some as a hero of the 199-1996 war, warned Russia that "the real battles have not yet begun."

"The flatlands, only a few big open spaces, is all that is left for the Russians," Basayev said, referring to the northern third of the republic.

Moscow has rejected calls for a cease-fire in Chechnya, saying Russian forces will not stop until the rebels have been eliminated.

Correspondent Mike Hanna, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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