ALONE AND WITHOUT A WEAPON: The story of a conscript who stormed Grozny during the first Chechen ...
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L. Safina. Segodnya newspaper, February 18, 2003
Late in the evening, we entered the outskirts of Grozny. Immediately, the first vehicle in the convoy was hit. The armored personnel carrier caught fire, and movement came to a standstill. We began firing back. Then, over the radio, they reported that "our forces" had captured a cannery and that artillery reconnaissance was to hold this combat position.
The colonel, whose security detail I served in, immediately laid out a map of the city and "calculated" where we needed to go. He said the cannery was two blocks from our current location.
Since the lead vehicle was burning and blocking the road, we decided to fight our way to the factory in our APC, which was bringing up the rear.
The driver, colonel, and signalman were in the front compartment of the APC, and I was in the rear compartment of the vehicle. Anyway, I don't know how the colonel navigated the map, but like Ivan Susanin, he led us to a place where our forces weren't even in sight. Ahead of us was not a cannery, but Dudayev's enormous palace...
That's where we were hit. A grenade launcher hit the engine. The APC stalled, and its rear compartment, where I was sitting, burst into flames.
The only way to get to our own people in the "colonel's" compartment was through the hatch above, which meant certain death—the APC was under constant fire.
However, I didn't feel like sitting there roasting alive either. I realized I'd have to get out. The worst part is, I'll have to jump out into the line of fire with just a grenade, without my machine gun—the weapon's broken. Oh, come what may...
#lasttime #stormofgrozny #specialforces #airborne #firstchechen