Fierce battles raged in eastern Chechnya yesterday as Moscow struggled to break a five-day rebel counter-attack and warned it could need three more months to bring the republic to heel.
The Russian Defence Minister, Mr Igor Sergeyev, vowed to crush the Chechen offensive and said the key town of Argun, which guards the eastern approaches to the capital, Grozny, was set to fall to federal troops.
In Grozny, the Chechen military said its offensive, code-named "Operation Sword of Justice", was inflicting serious losses on Russian troops who invaded on October 1st for the first time since the disastrous 19941996 war.
"Very heavy fighting is taking place in the east. The Russians have lost eight armoured personnel carriers and three tanks," the Chechen military centre said, without giving details of casualty figures.
Rebel fighters were battling Russian infantry in Alleroi, around Novogroznensky and Noibyora, in the east of the republic, the centre said.
The clashes, which erupted in the region on Saturday, have spread to the outskirts of Russian-controlled Gudermes, Che chnya's second city, and Argun, 8 km east of Grozny, the Chechen officials added.
Mr Sergeyev vowed to smash the guerrillas' attempt to seize the military initiative: "They will not succeed," Interfax quoted him as saying.
Argun was cut off by Russian armour, Mr Sergeyev said, adding that it would fall "in the coming two or three days" with the help of Chechen units who have sided with Moscow.
Local residents have contacted Russian generals in the zone to negotiate an unopposed entry into the town in return for an end to the punishing artillery barrage by federal forces, ITAR-TASS reported.
Russian forces control the low-lying northern half of the breakaway republic and officials say they expect to seize the capital - which, according to Moscow, is 80 per cent surrounded - some time this month.
However, the rebel counter-thrust appeared to deflate Russian hopes of a quick end to the Chechen campaign, Mr Sergeyev admitting that his troops would need another "one, two or three months" to secure the republic.
The avoidance of pitched battles has kept down Russian losses but seen Grozny claim more than 4,500 civilian deaths since the start of the campaign, and sparked an exodus of some 223,000 refugees.
The burgeoning refugee crisis has prompted sharp Western criticism of the Russian offensive and calls for political dialogue with Grozny's leadership.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, again expressed US displeasure at the intensifying military operation in a telephone call with her Russian counterpart, Mr Igor Ivanov, on Monday, US officials said.
But Moscow has shrugged off the attacks, and vowed to rid Chechnya of Islamic "terrorists" it blames for two raids into southern Russia this summer and a wave of apartment bombs in Russia in September which left 292 people dead.
Russia's Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that President Yeltsin had acted within his powers when he temporarily suspended the country's chief prosecutor over a sex scandal.
Mr Yeltsin has been trying to sack Mr Yuri Skuratov from his post since April, but the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, which alone has the power to remove him permanently, has consistently refused to approve the move.
The Kremlin says Mr Skuratov is morally unfit to hold high office. In March, state television showed footage of a man resembling Mr Skuratov in bed with two prostitutes.
Mr Skuratov says the clip was a politically motivated bid to discredit him and claims he had been close to uncovering high-level corruption at the time of his suspension.
A Kremlin spokesman confirmed yesterday that President Yeltsin was suffering from pneumonia.