Dzhokhar Dudayev - First Chechen War

First Chechen War

On December 1, 1994, the Russians began bombing Grozny airport and destroyed the Chechen Air Force (former Soviet training aircraft requisitioned by the republic in 1991). In response Ichkeria declared war on Russia and mobilised its armed forces. On December 11, 1994, five days after Dudaev and Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev of Russia had agreed to avoid the further use of force, Russian troops invaded Chechnya. It was mistakenly reported that one of Dudaev's two sons was killed in action early in the war; both of them are alive as of 2009.

Before the fall of Grozny, Dudaev abandoned the presidential palace, moved south with his forces and continued leading the war throughout 1995, reportedly from a missile silo close to the historic Chechen capital of Vedeno. He continued to insist that his forces would prevail after the conventional warfare had finished, and the Chechen guerrilla fighters continued to operate across the entire country picking off Russian units and demoralising their soldiers. A jihad was declared on Russia by the Dudaev-appointed Mufti of Ichkeria, Akhmad Kadyrov, and foreign volunteers began pouring into the republic, mostly from neighbouring North Caucasian Muslim republics such as Dagestan.