- Title: RUSSIA: PLANES BOMB THE CAPITAL OF RUSSIA'S BREAKAWAY CHECHNYA REGION
- Date: 29th November 1994
- Summary: GROZNY, CHECHNYA AND MOSCOW, RUSSIA (NOVEMBER 29, 1994) (REUTERS TELEVISION (RTV) - AVAILABLE ALL) GROZNY, CHECHNYA, RUSSIA 1. GV VARIOUS VIEWS OF BOMBED PLANES BURNING ON RUNWAY ON FIRE/ CLOUDS OF BLACK SMOKE / RESCUE WORKERS (12 SHOTS) 1.00 MOSCOW, RUSSIA 2. SV RUSSIAN PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN WALKS IN, SITS DOWN 1.13 3. S
- Embargoed: 14th December 1994 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GROZNY, CHECHNYA, RUSSIA
- City:
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVA338ZEEY1T9F3SERMNBG10R6CQ
- Story Text: Three planes bombed the capital of Russia's breakaway Chechnya region on Tuesday (November 29) and troops loyal to separatist leader Dzokhar Dudayev said they believed they had shot down one of the raiders.
Dudayev, briefing reporters on the top floor of the presidential palace in Grozny when the attack started, said the planes belonged to the Moscow-backed opposition trying to topple him.
An explosion followed the start of the raid and Dudayev's supporters said they believed one of the planes had been shot down.
The attack was apparently launched against government troop positions on the outskirts of town.
Thick black smoke billowed two kilometres (1.5 miles) from the city centre coming from the city airport, on fire after the bombing.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the air raid, which started around 2.50 p.m. (1150 GMT).
Russian President Boris Yeltsin told Dudayev and Chechnya's Moscow-backed opposition in a statement on Tuesday morning to lay down their arms within 48 hours or he would declare a state of emergency in the Transcaucasian republic.
He later told a meeting of the Russian Security Council, which groups the country's top officials, that Russia could not just sit and watch the bloodshed.
"Today we must take a final decision in connection with the situation in the Chechen republic," Tass quoted Yeltsin as saying.
"Bearing in mind that Chechnya is a republic of the Russian Federation, we cannot stand aside from the bloodshed," he said.
The foreign minister of Chechnya Shamsedin Yusef issued a tough response to Moscow's ultimatum that fighting must end in the region.
Shamsedin Yusef told reporters: "The Soviet Union could not crush Afghanistan. (Moscow) is nobody now but they want to have another Afghanistan." Yusef, a Jordanian-born ethnic Chechen, dismissed the Russian threats.
"I think he (Yeltsin) was drunk when he said this. This is one of the mad things he had done before," Yusef said.
"He hasn't read Chechen history", he added, referring to an almost 40-year war Russia fruitlessly waged against the peoples of the north Caucasus in the 19th century.
On the streets of Grozny earlier in the day, workers continued clearing up the burnt-out tanks that remain from the weekend's fighting while young Chechen volunteers signed up to fight on Dudayev's side.
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