Russians, Chechens Are Fighting Room-To-Room In Central Grozny But Capture Of Presidential Palace Won’t End The War

Savage room-to-room fighting reportedly broke out in central Grozny on Saturday as Chechen defenders lost control of their Cabinet building and battled to keep the symbolic seat of their rebel government, the presidential palace, from falling to Russian troops.

Russia’s NTV television network reported that Russian forces have seized at least part of the palace, where Chechen President Dzhokar M. Dudayev is sometimes based, and that Chechen irregulars were trying to expel them. Fighting was so heavy that other journalists could not get near enough to confirm the report.

Russian officials said their troops have swept Chechen fighters out of several government buildings next to the presidential palace, and have fended off Chechen assaults aimed at retaking the Cabinet building, considered key in the defense of central Grozny.

Eyewitnesses said the presidential palace, an imposing nine-story office building, was burning after taking several direct hits from Russian artillery.

The presidential palace is seen as the flag the Russians must capture to claim victory over the 3-year-old Chechen attempt at secession from the Russian Federation.

Taking it would certainly be a triumph for Russia’s military, but the fall of the palace is unlikely to end the war. The thousands of Chechen fighters have sworn to continue their resistance, whether within Grozny or in the mountains to the south, possibly ensnaring Russia in a longrunning, energy-sapping conflict resembling the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Dudayev reportedly told German television on Saturday that Moscow “should not feel safe.” Many hundreds of people have died since Russia launched its Chechnya offensive on Dec. 11.

NTV reported that the fighting in Grozny grew especially fierce Saturday evening, and that Chechens appeared to control most of the south of the city while Russians controlled the north. It said the top of the presidential palace was destroyed and that room-to-room fighting prevailed in other parts of the city.

Even as they lost ground, the Chechen fighters defending buildings on Grozny’s central square remained determined to make the advancing Russians pay dearly for every inch of territory gained, according to British free-lance cameraman Nigel Chandler.

“They will not be panicked into giving up Grozny,” said Chandler, 37, who spent Thursday night in the basement of the capital’s Parliament building while Chechens and Russians battled on the floors above him. He spent Friday night nearby in a Chechen basement hide-out

“They will lose control of the (central) square, but very, very slowly,” Chandler said of the rebels. “They’ll take heavy casualties, and then they’ll just move back a block or two.”

Heavy shelling and bombing of Grozny prevented journalists and many Chechen fighters from reaching the center of the city Saturday.

However, reports reaching Khasavyurt, just over the eastern border of Chechnya in Dagestan, indicated that the rebels have no intention of surrendering even if the presidential palace falls.

“If they take the city, it won’t mean anything,” said fighter Abdullah Gezulev, who was standing guard over Grozny civilians quickly drawing water from a vat pierced with bullet holes. “We will still continue to fight.”

But the relentless Russian assault was clearly taking its toll.

“It’s like a monster that destroys everything,” Chechen fighter Adlan Moshugov told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

“We’re scattered across the city, but Allah protects us,” he added. “Let them shoot. They will never take Grozny even if they drop a nuclear bomb here.”

Chandler said Freedom Square, the area between the Parliament and the palace where three weeks ago defiant Chechen fighters performed ritual religious dances, now looks as though an earthquake had struck.

In the southern Minutka neighborhood, which had been fully under Chechen control until a week ago, flames raged from an apartment building amid the deafening crash of artillery and mortar shells. Sniper fire whistled through the smoke of battle.

The basement of the presidential palace, ordinarily jammed with sleeping fighters, was nearly empty in the pre-dawn hours Thursday, Chandler said. However, there was a representative of the group “Mothers of Russian Soldiers,” which has been trying with help from the Chechens to pick up the bodies of dead soldiers that have been strewn around the capital’s streets since the disastrous Russian attempt to storm Grozny on New Year’s Eve.

There were reports that Dudayev was in the palace, but his whereabouts have become increasingly irrelevant to the fighters, who say they will defend their capital no matter what becomes of their leader.In the Parliament building, 10 Chechens were wounded and four killed out of about 40 defenders, Chandler said. The Chechens claimed that they had destroyed an armored personnel carrier with 11 people inside and killed about 10 other Russian soldiers.

“They take the casualties in the most matter-of-fact way,” said Chandler, noting that the Chechen fighters are all devout Muslims who get up at 6 every morning to pray before they begin the day’s battle.

“I never saw them panic or show fear. They accept death or injury. They kept saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to be OK.’ ‘