September 17, 2001

***
On the night of September 17, several residents of house 18 in the 6th microdistrict of Grozny were subjected to a robbery. Armed men dressed in camouflage uniforms demanded money and gold in Russian. Just as before in the village of Staraya Sunzha, a tall man especially stood out among the robbers for his rude behavior. The others were clearly his subordinates.

The owners, who did not want to part with their savings, were severely beaten. Later, one of the women had to be hospitalized.

***
At about 6 o'clock, members of the WF of the ChRI (up to 400 people) entered the city of Gudermes. The main group apparently came from the Druzhba state farm. However, according to local residents, some arrived by car along the Rostov-Baku highway. Most of the militants (at least 60%) wore camouflage uniforms. The faces of some were hidden by masks, from which eyewitnesses of the events concluded that they were residents of the city and adjacent settlements. Among the participants in the VF of the ChRI there were many young people from 18 to 22 or a little more years old, who, apparently, had not yet participated in battles. Their weapons consisted of machine guns, grenade launchers and machine guns. According to local residents, everyone recognized their subordination to the President of the ChRI Aslan Maskhadov and said that they were acting on his orders.

Participants of the WF of ChRI are located in urban areas: Ettukha, Poselok and the village of Druzhba. In the last of them, as well as at the railway station, an intense firefight began with the use of small arms and grenade launchers. Federal forces used artillery and mortars.

The greatest losses were suffered by policemen from Buryatia, who were guarding a railway crossing on the outskirts of Gudermes. As a result of the attack by militants, 15 people were killed (according to other sources, the death of Buryat policemen occurred due to an erroneous attack by Russian helicopters). In addition, members of the VF of the ChRI entered into battle with employees of the POM, consisting of local residents.

According to local residents, those who entered the city did not set themselves the task of capturing and holding any objects. On their part, this was apparently just a show of force.

As a result of shootings in the city, artillery shelling of residential areas and streets, there were casualties among the civilian population. Killed: a woman, a 50-year-old man, two men from the village of Kadi-Yurt, another from the village of Noybera and a taxi driver from the village of Gordali. Several people were injured of varying degrees of severity. There were also losses among the militants. Human Rights Center “Memorial” is aware of the deaths of five of them: Sultaev and Akhmadov from the village of Isti-Su, two from the village of Dzhalka and one from the village of Kurchaloy.

By 18:00, after the green flare signal, members of the ChRI VF began to leave the city in an organized manner. Some of them went through the forest towards Dzhalka.
The night passed relatively calmly, although it was accompanied by the sounds of artillery cannonade. The next morning, Russian military and police began a “cleansing” of city neighborhoods, which was accompanied by the detention of innocent people, extortion of money from local residents and theft of their property. More serious violations were avoided thanks to the coordinated actions of employees of the city administration and the permanent police department, even on September 17, before the start of force actions against the militants, who insisted on the evacuation of residents of several houses.

The situation in the city and in the region continued to remain tense in the following days. People did not leave their homes unless absolutely necessary. There was no previous activity in the city, and movement on the streets was also limited.

The same situation developed in Kurchaloevsky, Shalinsky, Nozhai-Yurtovsky districts - they were blocked by units of Russian troops.

***
At about 9 o'clock, Russian sappers, conducting engineering reconnaissance of the Grozny-Shatoi highway, discovered and detonated a landmine on the outskirts of the village of Starye Atagi. Then they fired a grenade launcher at the nearest house on Shosseynaya Street, which belonged to Salavdi Soltaev. Through the living room, a shell flew into the room in which the 27-year-old son of the owner of the house and his eight-month-old grandson were sleeping. By luck, the child was not injured, but the son received a burn to his cheek and ear from a shell flying over his head. The sofa caught fire, the living quarters and a car parked in the yard were damaged.

***
At about 11 o'clock, roads throughout the entire territory of the Chechen Republic, including in the city of Grozny, were blocked for vehicles. The “stop the wheel” command was apparently announced in connection with two events: the destruction by unknown persons of a helicopter with a commission from the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces on board and the start of fighting in the city of Gudermes.

In such situations in the Urus-Martan district, checkpoints were usually closed only along the perimeter of the regional center. This time, the surrounding settlements were also blocked. People who had already left their homes were unable to get back. Many of them spent the night from September 17 to 18 next to checkpoints or, abandoning their cars next to them, went to spend the night with friends, relatives, or just random people in nearby villages. The next morning, on the eastern outskirts of the village of Goyty, at the checkpoint in front of the bridge over the irrigation canal, about a dozen cars were waiting for permission to travel.
To get from one settlement of the Urus-Martan region to another, people had to change several taxis: they only went between checkpoints. The military allowed through cars with sick people and those whose owners had in their hands route pass sheets issued by the district commandant's office for only a day to a limited number of people.

The road blockade immediately affected food markets. In particular, vegetables that were delivered directly from the fields disappeared. Their prices have increased significantly. The roads in the Urus-Martan region were unblocked again only in the morning of September 25.

***
In the news block of the Russian radio there was information that a landmine was allegedly discovered and detonated near the railway station in Grozny. Employees of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" went to the place indicated by journalists and interviewed the builders carrying out restoration work here. None of them confirmed the fact of the explosion.

***
In Rostov-on-Don, a trial was held of four Russian servicemen accused of killing a resident of the village of Akhkinchu-Borzoy and wounding his mother and sister. The court sentenced one of them to 15, and the second to two years in prison. The remaining charges were dropped.

***
A rally was held on the theater square in Grozny, in which relatives of the dead and missing residents of the republic and activists of public organizations took part. They added new ones to their usual slogans demanding to start negotiations with the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichryssia Aslan Maskhadov, to release all those detained, to find and punish war criminals. The protesters unfurled hastily made banners: “America, Chechnya sympathizes with you”, “America, accept our condolences”, “We are with you, America”, “America - Chechnya - terror”, “We are also victims of terror”, etc.
The Russian military blocked the people gathered in the square. Using batons and shooting into the air, they pushed them back to the ruins of buildings and, tearing banners to shreds, ordered them to get out “in an amicable way.” The officer in command of the “operation” explained his actions like this: “You shouldn’t stand here. America is now on our side."

***
At about 11 p.m., the village of Novye Atagi came under mortar fire from the 205th motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Defense Ministry, stationed several kilometers southwest of the village of Lakha-Varanda. Five houses were damaged on Gorky Street and Ordzhonikidze Street. Three local residents: Alkhazur Osmayev, born 1947, Saikhan Mutsuraev, born 1950, and mother of three children Madina Idrisova, born 1976, received injuries of varying severity. Six cows were killed during the attack.

From the book “People Live Here”, Usam Baysaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006.