Chechen troops attacked Russian federal forces in a hit-and-run dawn raid yesterday that marked the worst fighting between the two sides since the 1994-1996 Chechen war.
Chechen forces inflicted heavy losses on Russian troops in the village of Ishcherskaya on the north bank of the strategic Terek River, an official in Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov's office said. Russian field commanders conceded losses from the fierce clashes, but the Prime Minister, Mr Vladimir Putin, shrugged off reports of the first Chechen counter-offensive since Russian troops entered Chechnya on October 1st.
"I've not heard about any overnight operation and heavy losses," Mr Putin told a security summit in the Ukrainian port town of Yalta, branding the claim as disinformation designed to mislead world opinion.
Mr Putin also refused to rule out a drive by Moscow's forces in south of the Terek and towards the capital Grozny.
"Chechnya is a part of Russia and Russian forces will go where they have to go," Mr Putin said.
Friday's raid lasted four hours. Grozny claims to have killed 200 Russian soldiers, taken 40 troops prisoner and destroyed 30 armoured personnel carrier in the attack before retreating. Russian commanders in the main southern military base of Mozdok confirmed heavy fighting and casualties in Ishcherskaya.
"Russian units encountered strong resistance and suffered losses" during clashes in the Ishcherskaya area, one source said, under conditions of anonymity.
In Moscow, the defence ministry said only four Russian soldiers had died, and one was wounded in the past 24 hours, but it was not clear if they had died in yesterday's clash.
Mr Maskhadov's office reported no casualty figures among its own forces. Moscow is highly sensitive to any reports suggesting that it has become bogged down in a bloody military operation in any way similar to the 21-month Chechen war. Moscow yesterday brushed off reports that Russian tanks earlier this week attacked a bus full of Chechen refugees, killing 28 civilians. "There was no such incident. Not a single refugee died from a Russian missile," said Gen Anatoly Shatalov, the head of the defence ministry's press service.
Grozny said that of the 40 mainly women and children on board fleeing for safety in the town of Shelkovskaya on Tuesday, 28 were killed, and nine of the 12 survivors were in serious condition.
Meanwhile, the head of the pro-Moscow government-in-exile, the previously unheard of Mr Malik Saydullayev (35), said his administration would enter Chechnya next week, and dismissed Grozny's threats against his life.
"In the next four or five days we will go in, and you will see how the people will greet us, how happy everyone will be," Mr Say dullayev said.