Battle for Height 776 2000
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 29 February 2000 – 1 March 2000 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 2000 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | Post-1945 (1946 onwards) | derived from year |
| Location | Russia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Second Chechen War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 42.9631, 45.8047 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle for Height 776, part of the larger Battle of Ulus-Kert, was an engagement in the Second Chechen War that took place during fighting for control of the Argun River gorge in the highland Shatoysky District of central Chechnya, between the villages of Ulus-Kert and Selmentauzen.
In late February 2000, the Russian military attempted to encircle and destroy a large Chechen force withdrawing from the Chechen capital Grozny to Shatoy and Vedeno in the southern mountains of Chechnya following the 1999–2000 siege and capture of Grozny. On 29 February 2000, just hours after Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev had assured his government that the Second Chechen War was over, an isolated Russian force composed mainly of a company of paratroopers of the 76th Airborne Division from the city of Pskov found itself cut off by a retreating Chechen column led by Shamil Basayev and Ibn Al-Khattab. After heavy close-quarters overnight fighting, the Russian position was overrun and almost entirely wiped out. The incident inspired a Kremlin-funded film, and fascinated Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Uncertainty continues to surround many aspects of the engagement, including the number of combatants, casualties, how much artillery support and close air support was provided, and how long the…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle for Height 776 (revision 1372673028), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Komsomolskoye 2000 · 20 km
- Battle of Vedeno 2001 · 23 km
- Battle of Dargo (1845) 1845 · 35 km
- Battle of Khankala (1994) 1994 · 38 km
- Battle of the Valerik River 1840 · 40 km
- Battle of Grozny (March 1996) 1996 · 40 km
Other battles of the Second Chechen War
All 4 battles of the Second Chechen War →
Browse more: battles in Russia · Europe · Post-1945 battles