First Chechen War in the context of "Chechen genocide"

Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia–Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Checheno-Ingush ASSR split into two parts: the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. The latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which declared independence, while the former sided with Russia. Following the First Chechen War of 1994–1996 with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, although de jure it remained a part of Russia. Russian federal control was restored in the Second Chechen War of 1999–2009, with Chechen politics being dominated by the former Ichkerian mufti Akhmad Kadyrov, and later his son Ramzan Kadyrov.

The First Battle of Grozny was the Russian Army's invasion and subsequent conquest of the Chechen capital, Grozny, during the early months of the First Chechen War. The attack would last from December 1994 to March 1995, which resulted in the military occupation of the city by the Russian Army and rallied most of the Chechen nation around the government of Dzhokhar Dudayev.

The initial assault resulted in considerable Russian casualties and demoralization in the Russian forces. It took another two months of heavy fighting, and a change in tactics, before the Russian Army was able to capture Grozny. The battle caused enormous destruction and casualties amongst the civilian population and saw the heaviest bombing campaign in Europe since the end of World War II.

Akhmat-Khadzhi Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov (23 August 1951 – 9 May 2004) was a Chechen politician and revolutionary who served as Chief Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s during and after the First Chechen War. At the outbreak of the Second Chechen War he switched sides, offering his service to the Russian government, and later became the President of the Chechen Republic from 5 October 2003, having acted as head of administration since July 2000.

On 9 May 2004, he was assassinated by Chechen Islamists in Grozny, by a bomb blast during a Victory Day memorial parade. His son, Ramzan Kadyrov, who led his father's militia, became his successor in March 2007 as the President of the Chechen Republic.

The Tupolev Tu-22M (Russian: Туполев Ту-22М; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. The bomber was reported as being designated Tu-26 by Western intelligence at one time. During the Cold War, the Tu-22M was operated by the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) in a missile carrier strategic bombing role, and by the Soviet Naval Aviation (Aviatsiya Voyenno-Morskogo Flota, AVMF) in a long-range maritime anti-shipping role.

The Tu-22M was first used for conventional bombing by the Soviet Union in the Soviet–Afghan War. Russia has flown the Tu-22M on bombing missions in the First Chechen War, Russo-Georgian War, intervention in the Syrian civil war, and Russo-Ukrainian war. On 1 June 2025, Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb drone attack destroyed four Tu-22Ms at Belaya air base.

The Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (Russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел (ВВ МВД), romanized: Vnutrenniye voyska Ministerstva vnutrennikh del (VV MVD)) was a paramilitary force of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia from 1991 to 2016.

The Internal Troops was a gendarmerie-like force that supported the Russian police, dealt with crowd control during riots and internal conflicts, and guarded highly-important facilities such as nuclear power plants. The Internal Troops was involved in all conflicts and violent disturbances in modern Russia, including the First and Second Chechen Wars, where it fell under direct military command during wartime and fulfilled missions of local defence and rear area security. The Internal Troops consisted of both volunteers and conscripts, which caused the number of active service members to fluctuate, with less than 200,000 upon their disestablishment from a peak strength of 350,000, and had experienced a shortage of officers since 1998. The final commander-in-chief of the Internal Troops was Colonel General Viktor Zolotov from 2014 to 2016.

The Battle of Grozny of August 1996, also known as Operation Jihad or Operation Zero Option, when Chechen fighters regained and then kept control of Chechnya's capital Grozny in a surprise raid. Russian federal forces had captured the city in a previous battle that ended in February 1995, and subsequently posted a large garrison of federal and republican Ministry of the Interior (MVD) troops in the city.

The much smaller Chechen forces infiltrated Grozny and either routed the MVD forces or split them into many pockets of encirclement. Chechen fighters then beat back the Russian Ground Forces units that had been sent to expel the fighters and rescue their own trapped forces. The final result was a ceasefire that effectively ended the First Chechen War of 1994–1996.