The Russian military stated that 480 Russian soldiers were killed in Chechnya in 2002.[1]
January
January 3 - Six-day fighting in
Tsotsin-Yurt claimed around 100 rebels killed according to Moscow, and 40 Russians were killed according to the Chechen separatists. Five Russian troops were killed in the other attacks across Chechnya.
January 17 - More than 30 Russian servicemen reportedly died in separate attacks on troop columns in the
Vedeno and
Urus-Martan districts.
January 19 - Seven Russian
Internal Troops have died and three were wounded in an explosion of a remote-controlled mine in
Dagestan. Rebel attacks in
Chechnya killed eight troops and injured nine, while the military detained 86 people on suspicion of participating in rebel formation during a series of security sweeps.[2]
March 19 - One of the leaders of the Chechen resistance and the influential
Arab volunteer,
Ibn al-Khattab, was killed by a poisoned letter in an operation by the
Federal Security Service (FSB).
April
April 6 - Five Russian soldiers have been killed in Chechnya when their armoured vehicle detonated a mine outside
Grozny.
April 14 - Russia forces have launched a major operation in southern Chechnya involving aircraft and heavy guns against the
Vedensky District after the Chechen guerrillas claimed the lives of nine Russian servicemen in explosions and
hit-and-run tactics attacks.[4]
April 17 - Two attacks in the southern
Shatoysky District killed 11 Russian servicemen and wounded 13.
July 5 - Rebel ambushes in Chechnya killed 11 Russian soldiers and police officers.
July 8 - Two soldiers and six police officers were killed in clashes with Chechen rebels, while the Russian troops detained 90 people for questioning over suspected ties to insurgents.[5]
July 16 - Separatist fighters attacked Russian army convoys and checkpoints in Chechnya, killing six.
August
August 6 - A land mine exploded under a military truck that was transporting 33 local servicemen back to their
barracks in the town of
Shatoy, killing 11 Chechen policemen and badly wounded seven.
August 17 - Russian troops battled with Chechen rebels who attacked a number of villages in southern Chechnya in fighting that has left at least nine soldiers dead.
August 19 - An overloaded
Mi-26 transport helicopter was hit by an
Igla missile and crashed into a
mine field,
killing some 127 soldiers aboard, the greatest loss of life in the history of helicopter
aviation. The Russian military command said that federal forces have killed 39 Chechen fighters in the past two days; the report could not be independently confirmed.
August 23 - Eight soldiers were killed in Chechnya.
August 31 - A Russian helicopter was downed by a missile in Chechnya, killing two.
September 15 - Fighting killed 12 Russian servicemen and one rebel, while more than 100 suspected rebels were detained in security sweeps.[6]
September 26 -
Ruslan Gelayev's forces raided into
Ingushetia, capturing the villages of
Tarskoe and then
Galashki. Gelayev's 150 fighters, including 30
Kabardians and
Balkars, became surrounded, took large losses and were dispersed. According to the Russian officials, at least 17 Russian servicemen, including two
Mi-24 pilots, and as many as 76 rebels were reported killed in clashes.
October
October 10 - A bomb attack on a Grozny police station killed 25 Chechen policemen, including many senior officers, and wounded nine. It is suspected that one of the policemen was responsible for planting the bomb, which went off during the conference of 40 Grozny police commanders.
October 29 - A Mi-8 shot down by the rebels explodes during attempted
emergency landing, killing all four people on board.[7]
October 31 - Chechen rebels killed six Russian servicemen, a Chechen policeman and a local administrator
November
November 3 - Rebels shoot down a Mi-8 helicopter with a portable ground-to-air missile near Grozny, killing nine servicemen.
November 15 - An official in the Chechen administration said that 12 federal service personnel and allied Chechen militiamen were killed.
November 16 - Lieutenant-General
Igor Shifrin, head of the Army's Glavspetzstroi (Main Directorate of Special Construction), was killed in ambush in Grozny when his and another vehicle came under intense fire from
automatic weapons. Several other people were reported killed and wounded in the firefight, and at least 220 people were detained by Russian forces.[8]
November 29 - Five Russian servicemen and a paramilitary policeman were killed in clashes with rebels and from mine explosions in Chechnya.
December
December 25–28 guerrillas laid down their weapons in Grozny. At least four Russians were killed.