Spetsnaz GRU in the Caucasus Mountains
Tells the guard Major Special Forces of the GRU, Anatoly P .:“Six months before the destruction of Gelayev, we helped the border guards“ scratch ”one area, from where the gelayevs were running from Chechnya to Georgia. Our two groups (about 30 people) faced them head-on. The militants have such a tactic - to beat tightly, almost at one point. Several of our soldiers were killed immediately. But we do not soup soup slurp. Our machine gunner Mushatov, a Kazakh by nationality, nailed them to the ground. God rest his soul. (The major crossed himself three times.)
A dozen two militants besieged Mushatov from all sides. Crush the boy with fire and crush! The group commander rushed to him (he wanted to drag the cartridges) - he also received a bullet in the chest. And Mushatov scribbled everything and scribed from a machine gun ... Then the fighters told me that he always took more ammunition than the grub. Thrifty ... Only soldier happiness has changed him: Mushatov wounded in the stomach with a fragment of a grenade. He is lying down, writhing in pain, he is trying to press his hands to his stomach ... We see that he is dying, gritting his teeth and cannot do anything. Kolem, we prick him promedol, so that the guy is not so painful to die ...
From the battle of Mushatov, the contract sergeant Oleg K. bore himself. And also he shot a bullet in the thigh.
Guards sergeant-contractor of the GRU special forces Oleg K .:
- I used to live in Bishkek. From there he ran away - they began to press Russians in Kyrgyzstan. I passed military service in Chechnya, I stayed alive, I earned money. When you get 25 thousand rubles - you feel like a millionaire. And ... again to the war pulled. Moreover, you know that you do not hunch at someone else's uncle, but you plow to your homeland. For front-line money I bought a hut in the Kuban. Actually, I'm a wedding thief! Armenian wife stole. Her parents did not want to give her daughter for a beggar. Yes, I'm not poor now! Maybe another contract for the war I will conclude. I do not want to guess ...
Guards Major GRU Special Forces Anatoly P .:
- This fight almost became the last for us. The second hour is a shootout. The trunks of our "Kalashnikovs" are so heated that you can light up. The ammo is running out. We have already gathered in bayonets on the Chechens to go ... One hell to die!
And then the Gelayevites attacked us ... in a psychic attack. Immediately remembered the film "Chapaev." They run to their full height, shoot from machine guns from the belt, shout something in their own way. They had one so loud. We called him a "political commander". He shouted, podlyuga: “Allah Akbar!” And in response, other bearded men roar in response to him: “Allah Akbar!” And then they swear in Russian.
We were rescued by the mother infantry from the 42 Division: the soldiers secretly approached the militants and stabbed them in the back with a shout of "Hurray!" That was our psychic attack! We, of course, supported the infantry with fire and foul language. The Chechens were immediately taken aback. Some ran back, abandoning weapon.
We carried our dead and wounded to the skyscraper. I had to drag and dead militants. After all - a combat result. It is necessary to report to the authorities. They ordered a helicopter by radio, but he cannot sit in the forest. The crowns of the trees so intertwined at the top that just Khan. And we began to cut down trees. Some trunks, almost in two girth, were felled with TNT sticks.
It got dark. And again I had to wait for the helicopter until the morning - under the moans of the wounded and the hungry rumbling of the stomachs ...
... BEFORE fleeing to Georgia, Gelayev’s gang lingered around Ingushetia and Chechnya for two weeks. Black Angel was looking for a “door” in the border. This trapdoor for 100 dollars was sold to him by a local traitor resident, drawing a diagram of unimpeded passage through the Russian-Georgian border. After the execution of the 9 border guards, two groups of GRU special forces immediately “covered” the cordon. This piece of Russia is held by so-called temporary border posts: 4 Ensign FPS and 6 Dagestan police. Militants knew about it and calmly walked into the “hole” between the second and third outposts of the Khunzakh border guard detachment. It is difficult, but the only way to Georgia in the winter.
Therefore, Gelayev, plucking up the audacity, decided to take a breath under the nose of the border guards. There were waiting for him guides - local residents. Moreover, the bandits ran out of food. Loaded like donkeys, gunmen dragged tons of cargo in 1,5 backpacks. Any Russian special forces could envy their weapons: on 36 people - 8 light machine guns, 26 submachine guns, 6 Bumblebee flamethrowers, thousands of rounds of ammunition, each with disposable grenade launchers, mobile communications, portable navigators to determine geographical location.
After spending the night in the village of Shauri, in the morning they made a forced march on the vehicles in which Gelayev and his guards were seated. They took two “Niva” and “Volga” in Metrad, paying 200 dollars for services, promising their owners to leave the cars in front of the road to Georgia ... But Mokaev’s head of the frontier post spoiled the whole settlement. Having put the fighters in GAZ-66, the captain rushed in pursuit of the Black Angel.
This is what one of the captive militants told about the death of the border guards during the interrogation:
“We fired four machine guns at a border all-terrain vehicle.” Tarpaulin body tent scattered to shreds. Seven soldiers died immediately, without making a single shot. Gelaev cut the driver personally with a sniper rifle, but he missed here and finished off the soldier with a dagger blow in the heart. The blow was of such strength that it pierced through not only the soldier, but also the driver’s seat. The captain, it seems, Dagestani, was cut off the head and ... in general, from what children are born. In our hands were captured weapons and a frontier radio. So we were aware of what was being done at the outpost ...
The thunder of Gelayev's gang lasted for 24 of the day, but the backbone of the detachment was destroyed in two weeks.
Colonel GRU Sergey V.:
- The weather is shit, it is snowing heavily, no turntables fly. It is difficult to push troops into the mountains with “wheels” - at least two days. The village of Metrad can only be reached by “UAZ” or “Niva”. Next are donkey paths, similar to the roads, strings, on which even the donkey presses its ears to the rock. At first, there were only two groups of intelligence officers at hand - the 24 man. The third came later. These three groups of GRU special forces decided the outcome of the whole operation.
The first ten bandits "soaked" the army and border aviation. Front-line bombers of the Su-24 literally dived into the mountains with a height of 3400-3600 meters, where the Gelayevites were spotted. But the fighters soon had to be abandoned. The bombing of fighters in the mountains from an attack aircraft is equivalent to firing a cannon at a sparrow from a cannon. As soon as gaps appeared in the clouds, turntables began to work in the mountains. But the old, tormented by the war in Chechnya, Mi-8 barely kept in the discharged air only thanks to the professionalism of the pilots. In addition, the militants have long adapted to airstrikes in the mountains. Seeing a helicopter approaching a combat course, they were covered with a large white blanket - such as a sheet - and practically disappeared in the snow. In general, the Gela residents played cat and mouse with the pilots.
GRU SPETSNAZ drove Gelayev's gang to a mountain 3600 meters high. The militants turned around there, like lice on a scallop: there is no place to go higher, a clear death below - a glacier and an impassable gorge. There is one beast lives. The scouts saw bears, outraged by early awakening from hibernation, seeping from the roar of firing from the lairs. Unfortunately, the helicopter pilots overwhelmed three kosolapyhs without harming the gangsters who had been bombarded in caves.
Lieutenant-General Arkady Bakhin, commander of a mountain army group in Chechnya:
- On the ridge height in 3600 meters, special forces climbed almost neck in the snow. Sometimes among the snowdrifts stuck alone their heads. And they pierced the road in the snow with their hands and machine guns. Therefore, they walked very slowly - over a light day - 800 meters. The steepness of the slopes reached 65 degrees. What is 3600 meters in the mountains? There are, however, unaccounted statistics: in winter, every kilometer at a height adds frost degrees to 6. And on the ridge was already - 20 .. And yesterday schoolchildren, our soldiers, got there. In the first week there was not a single “live” shoe on their feet. From inhuman overloads shoes shattered. What our guys have stood for two weeks in the mountains, beyond human capabilities.
Part of the militants scouts destroyed with the help of ... nature. It was a truly jewelery job. It was necessary to hit the mountain above the bandits so that the snow shaft would drop them from the slope. They decided to beat the militants with an avalanche. As luck would have it, only one heavily worn out 82-mm mortar, which did not even finish up to the Gelayevites, was at hand from the mountain artillery. This ancient front-line “pipe” was thrown by an air carrier Mi-8, miraculously making its way to the special forces through a blizzard. Helicopter, also "old age", I could not take any more: only one mortar, 120 minutes and a crew. I had to drag him and ammunition on a donkey to the mountains, closer to the militants. ... In one of the caves, the 16 of the Gelayevites hid. On the third day, their nerves broke down and the militants decided to go down - into the gorge.
Lieutenant-General Arkady Bakhin, commander of a mountain army group in Chechnya:
- From the cave down on militants linked automatic belts, one end of which is held by two powerful Chechen. The latter, knowing that he will not leave a stone caches, decided to jump off a cliff into a waterfall and crashed. In this battle, our soldier died, having received a severe wound to the neck. Just had a child, an orphan - without a father and mother. The brother in prison is sitting ... We introduced this kid to the title of Hero of Russia.
Special Forces pursued militants, climbed almost over sheer cliffs. One of the groups was held at the Great Caucasian Range at an altitude of 3400 meters to circumvent the enemy from the rear.
Colonel GRU Sergey V.:
- Ahead of the scouts - deep cleft, more precisely, the abyss depth in 800 meters. From this height, the car looks like a matchbox. It was from this cruise that ordinary Zinoviev broke. I was then told that Zinoviev and other fighters who had broken off the rocks fell into the abyss in silence so that they would not reveal the location of the group with their death-cry.
- The special forces had mining equipment?
- It was! Two coils of clothesline for each group. Almost at dusk, they descended onto a stone shelf the size of an ordinary window sill. And then - a sharp cliff and a cascade of waterfalls. That's where the soldiers slid from the height of 10-15 meters, gliding on the rock on the ass. And so several times, until they came to the river.
All night the group walked to the waist in icy water, in the cold in 20 degrees. Sometimes - falling into the ravine, dipping into them with the head. Clothes covered with a crust of ice, hampered movement. In such conditions usually do not survive. They could, of course, stop, find firewood and warm themselves. But the group commander made the decision to go faster in order not to freeze completely. Thus, he saved the soldiers from death. The fighters only froze slightly.
How much does a scout carry? I personally know one officer - a cool guy. And he has a powerful call sign - "Tiger". One morning, he changed clothes, going to the mountains. I looked at his back and almost cried: there is a solid bruise. Working in the mountains, he beat her to black with his backpack. The most difficult for machine-gunners, so they are all healthy men. They carry about 60 kilograms on themselves: a light machine gun, ammunition up to 1,5, thousands of cartridges plus clothing, food. Radio Operator - a little less: the station "coffin" type (weighs about 15 kg), spare food, weapons.
... THE REMAINS of Gelayev's gang were sitting in the gorge - a hundred meters above scouts. Militants fire snapped and were even able to organize a strong rockfall, blowing up a piece of rock. There was one donkey trail, but there was already sitting enemy machine gunner - he could have a month to keep the whole regiment here. Shooting militants from the rocks could only be a bomb. But in this place, at the exit of the gorge, in 2,5 km there is the village of Metrad. When applying the volume-detonating ammunition, it would simply be bold from the face of the earth.
Climbing up the waterfalls, the scouts, jumping over the 3-thousandth ridge and impassable glacier, hit the enemy’s head. It was impossible to carry out aimed fire from machine guns - rocks and trees interfered. The grenade launchers on the Kalashnikov also did not help: in order for the grenade to stand on a combat platoon, it needs to fly 50 meters. And before the Gelayevites - less than thirty. Then the scouts simply threw bandits "pocket artillery" - grenades, lemon.
... THE SPECIAL FORCES knew that Gelayev was moving with difficulty: his legs were frostbite, and he was walking with his favorite weapon - a light machine gun, which he then gave to bodyguards, picking up a lighter SVD sniper rifle. ... December 28 during a fierce battle most of the group Gelayev was destroyed. The scouts "got" the militants with jet anti-tank and hand fragmentation grenades. During the battle, the commander of the assault group broadcast that there was a woman among the militants, as he heard a female screech and saw a cosmetic set thrown out of the cave with a blast wave. But it was the wounded mojaheds who screamed, and they used cosmetic bags to take care of their beards and facets. However, none of them wanted to lay down their arms. Over the battlefield, replacing each other, the helicopters of the Border Troops and the MoD circled, but they could not help with the fire of the assault group. In this battle, one of the scouts of the assault group was heroically killed; a seriously wounded scout was evacuated by a Mi-8MT helicopter with an HSV on board. The crew of the squadron commander Sergey P., evacuating the wounded man, will land his helicopter on a tiny patch, where in two days even the Ka-27 helicopter will hardly land.
... Seen from Gelaev body at the end of February there were recorded multiple shrapnel wounds and detachment of the hand. Perhaps the brush was bitten off by foxes, jackals or marten predators who discovered a corpse that had lain for two months under the snow.
... The scouts could not inspect the place of the helicopter strike on two fighters on December 30 and 31, 2003, since the path along the gorge up blocked the waterfall and congestion on the stream caused by avalanches. Unfortunately, the entire scanty supply of mountain rope and equipment that the scouts, begging the command, requested by the end of the operation, was left only to get to the cave not along the stream, but along the slope. Could not sit there and the Ka-27 search and rescue service of the Black Sea fleetreceived on December 27 at the disposal of the operation commander by order of the Chief of the General Staff.
By the way, for the first time in the domestic stories 30 special forces on December 2003 was carried out combat landing of the reconnaissance group helicopter KA-27 helicopter landing method. The static ceiling of the "pap" is almost three times higher than that of the Milev's "eight", and it cannot be replaced in the high mountains. But God forbid you get it under enemy fire!
... On December 29, the scouts finished off the militants who remained in the cave, but one of them, Mahmad, who had buried Gelayev and brought all his personal belongings into the cave, managed to escape. But not for long, he was killed on January 2 by the MoD special forces reconnaissance group. In the cave, Gelayev's cousin, Alikhan Utsiyev, was killed, and he had been closely following him all these past months.
Putting an end to the operation to destroy the entire bandit Gelayev prevented the celebrations, arranged in early January for a group of servicemen participating in the operation. The operation was hastily crumpled, although an analysis of the available operational data led to the conclusion that the rest of the militants (up to seven people) are still in the Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan. In the village of Nizhny Khvarshen on the eve of the New Year, three militants stocked up with food and medicine. The identified personalities of the militants who were killed in the cave from Gelayev’s inner circle indicated that Khamzat himself was somewhere nearby, and was hardly alive, because his personal belongings with which he did not part were found in the cave.
The fact of the destruction of Ruslan Gelayev will be made public on the eve of the presidential elections in Russia. A version of his death with a chocolate in the mouth, self-brushing, the simultaneous death of all participants in the battle, the two-month wandering of the field commander in Dagestan and his appearance in sports pants in the last days of December 2003 for several tens of kilometers south of his death area, from which to the Georgian border it was no more than 8 km - all this nonsense even among non-professionals will cause Homeric laughter ...
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