MOSCOW, DEC 27: Russian forces pushed deep into the Chechen capital Grozny on Sunday, the second day of an operation aimed at gaining rapid control of the city and bringing the military close to victory in the rebel province.Interfax news agency quoted pro-Moscow Chechen leader Bislan Gantamirov as saying his paramilitaries, which spearheaded the attack on Grozny, had reached the city centre.Gantamirov said his forces, which total 800 fighters, had made their way to a building right in the centre of the city known as Dom Pechati, which once hosted the headquarters of local newspapers. Ort television, reporting earlier from Russia's main military base in the region just outside Chechnya, said troops had reached the strategically important Minutka square near the city centre. Minutka, just a few minutes' drive from the heart of the ruined city, was the scene of fierce battles in the 1994-96 Chechen war which ended with a Russian retreat from the region.Ort said the rebels did not have a single line ofdefence and had ceded some positions without fighting, but had left them heavily mined. ``They offer fierce resistance only on strategically important squares and street crossings,'' it said.On the northern outskirts, Russian troops with air support battled to cut off groups of rebels from their main defence lines in the city centre, Itar-Tass news agency said. Between 1,500 and 5,000 Chechen guerrillas are still defending Grozny in fighting that has trapped up to 40,000 civilians in basements with little food or firewood. On Saturday, Russian commanders said they had launched a ``special operation'' to take control of the city. Ria news agency quoted army sources as saying they would control it today.But generals have played down the scale and pace of fighting, clearly trying to avoid comparisons with their botched attempt to storm the Chechen capital five years ago.p``Nothing terrible is happening in Grozny, all that's going on is a continuation of the operation to free the city of bandits,''Itar-Tass news agency quoted the commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, Colonel-General Viktor Kazantsev, as saying.``Let's not hurry, but you'll soon see,'' Kazantsev said when asked whether the Russian flag would soon fly over the capital.Russian forces have already stormed Grozny once, at the start of the disastrous 1994-96 campaign. Hundreds of Russian troops were killed on the last night of 1994, trying to seize a city that finally fell only after weeks of heavy fighting.This time, Russian forces have clearly been more methodical. The city has been encircled for nearly a month and Russian troops gradually moved into its outskirts for nearly two weeks before they announced an operation to take it.Interfax news agency quoted Chechen rebel commander Isa Munayev in Grozny as saying there was little change in positions overnight, but that there had been heavy exchanges of artillery and mortar fire.Officials have stressed the role of pro-Russian Chechen militia in the fighting for Grozny,though it is not clear how significant it is.
