Editing First Chechen War (section)

===Initial conflict===
[[File:Evstafiev-chechnya-women-pray.jpg|thumb|Chechen women praying for Russian troops not to advance on [[Grozny]], December 1994.]]

On 11 December 1994, Russian forces launched a three-pronged ground attack towards [[Grozny]]. The main attack was temporarily halted by the deputy commander of the [[Russian Ground Forces]], General {{ill|Eduard Vorobyov|ru|Воробьёв, Эдуард Аркадьевич}}, who then resigned in protest, stating that it is "a crime" to "send the army against its own people."<ref name="Gall"/> Many in the Russian military and government opposed the war as well. [[Boris Yeltsin|Yeltsin]]'s adviser on nationality affairs, {{Interlanguage link|Emil Pain|ru|Паин, Эмиль Абрамович}}, and Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense General [[Boris Gromov]] (commander of the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Afghan War]]), also resigned in protest of the invasion ("It will be a bloodbath, another [[Soviet–Afghan War|Afghanistan]]", Gromov said on television), as did General Boris Poliakov. More than 800 professional soldiers and officers refused to take part in the operation; of these, 83 were convicted by [[military court]]s and the rest were discharged. Later General [[Lev Rokhlin]] also refused to be decorated as a [[Hero of the Russian Federation]] for his part in the war.

The advance of the northern column was halted by the [[Battle of Dolinskoye|unexpected Chechen resistance]] at Dolinskoye and the Russian forces suffered their first serious losses.<ref name="Gall"/>
Units of Chechen fighters inflicted severe losses on the Russian troops. Deeper in Chechnya, a group of 50 [[Russian Airborne Troops|Russian paratroopers]] was captured by the local Chechen [[militia]], after being deployed by helicopters behind enemy lines to capture a Chechen weapons cache.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Efron |first1=Sonni |title=Aerial Death Threat Sends Chechens Fleeing From Village: Caucasus: Russians warn they will bomb five towns near Grozny unless 50 captured paratroopers are quickly freed. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-10-mn-18475-story.html |access-date=31 December 2020 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=January 10, 1995 |archive-date=2023-03-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317122524/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-10-mn-18475-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On 29 December, in a rare instance of a Russian outright victory, the Russian airborne forces seized the military airfield next to [[Grozny]] and repelled a Chechen counter-attack in the [[Battle of Khankala (1994)|Battle of Khankala]]; the next objective was the city itself. With the Russians closing in on the capital, the Chechens began to set up [[defensive fighting position]]s and grouped their forces in the city.