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Chechenpress
Military losses of the sides in the Russian-Chechen war 1999 - 2003
The large-scale war of the Russian Federation against the Chechen Republic
of Ichkeria has already continued for 4 years. Counting from 6 September,
1999 to 12 September, 2003, these are 209 weeks of war. The State News
Agency CHECHENPRESS has kept account of the enemy losses since the 90th
week of the war. The data are based on informations coming from the
correspondents of the news agency in the ChRI, Ingushetia, the General
Staff of the Armed Forces of the ChRI and reports by the Russian media.
The incoming information isn't comprehensive - some of the losses aren't
accounted for, some have been successfully hidden by the Russian side.
Nevertheless, even a partial survey of the data makes it possible to
get a sufficiently impressive picture.
In 209 weeks of this war, the Russian grouping lost at least 25,038
soldiers, officers, miltiamen, members of special services, spetsnaz,
pilots. 20,503 people were injured. The weekly losses are 120 killed
and 98 injured. The number of killed exceeds the number of injured,
because the major part of the Russian losses is the result of guerilla
warfare. In the majority of cases, all the [attacked] Russian soldiers
are killed by the Chechen Resistance troops during ambushes, mine attacks,
fire from automatic weapons and grenade launchers. There's a large number
of officers among the killed, including GRU and elite-spetsnaz of the
army and the Interior Ministry of the Russian Federation - the Chechen
troops are carrying out a preferred and deliberate hunt on them.
The quantity of destroyed enemy equipement in 209 weeks of war, according
to the incomplete data of our agency, is as follows:
armoured troop carriers (APC) - an average of 6 vehicles a week and
a total of 1254 vehicles in 4 years;
infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) - an average of 3,7 vehicles a week,
a total of 783 vehicles in 4 years;
tanks - only 24 in 4 years;
military URAL trucks - an average of 4 trucks a week, a total of 841
in 4 years;
UAZ personnel motor vehicles - an average of 3,9 vehicles a week, a
total of 817 in 4 years;
military GAZ-66, KAMAZ trucks - only 131 in 4 years;
combat helicopters, aircraft - an average of 0,58 machines a week, a
total of 122 in 4 years.
Furthermore, because the information about losses is incomplete, it
must be emphasized that the weekly losses of personnel and military
hardware of the Russian grouping were higher during the first 89 weeks
of the war, when large-scale battles were taking place. But because
of the absence of a weekly calculation by the agency during that period,
an average number has been taken for the human losses - 120 killed and
98 injured per week. The hardware was treated in an analogous way.
Data about the losses of the Chechen Resistance soldiers are received
too irregularly by the CHECHENPRESS agency for it being possible to
make any generalizations. Experts of the "Kavkaz-Tsentr" site mention
a number of 5,000 killed Chechen Resistance soldiers during 4 years
of war. More than half the number of the killed falls into the years
of 1999 - 2000, when positional warfare was still taking place and there
was no tactics of guerilla warfare.
S. Bahayeva, Chechenpress, 10.09.03
http://www.chechenpress.com/news/09_2003/14_10_09.shtml
[Translation by M.L.]
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