ON THE GROUND.

Six Russian soldiers were killed and six others injured in the space of 24 hours, the Russian forces’ command announced August 31. In the Russian-Chechen armistice control commission, the Russian side complained that some of its forward positions were being shelled in violation of the armistice. Denying any Chechen responsibility, chief negotiator Khodzhakhmed Yarikhanov renewed an offer to have the Russian outposts protected by Chechen units against attack.

The joint commission announced that the population of 33 Chechen villages had handed over a total of 905 firearms to the commission’s representatives, a somewhat modest number in the Chechen circumstances. Russian military authorities reportedly paid from 800,000 to one million rubles for each weapon turned in.

And also on August 31 in Grozny, an armed group robbed the Menatep bank’s Chechnya branch of two billion rubles, (roughly half a million dollars). Menatep was one of the 15 Moscow commercial banks granted the right to finance reconstruction projects in Chechnya.

Moscow Renews Attacks on NATO Strikes.