During the first Chechen conflict, which broke out on December 11, 1994, Russian Federation soldiers carried the bodies of their slain comrades.

 　Russian Federation soldiers carry the bodies of their slain comrades in the first Chechen conflict, which broke out on December 11, 1994. Initially, President Yeltsin thought he could overrun Chechnya in a short time. The Russian Federation Army showed surprising fragility and struggled, with a large number of Russian Federation soldiers becoming prisoners of the Chechen armed forces.

　The Chechen conflict also saw a series of hostage incidents: in June 1996, militants occupied a hospital in the Russian region of Stavropol, adjacent to Chechnya, demanding that Russian troops cease military operations.They took 200 patients and civilians hostage and holed up. The Yeltsin regime forced security forces to raid the hospital, but failed to gain control of the situation. Tragically, 121 civilians died as collateral damage in the firefight. In January 1996, another 500 militants occupied a hospital in Kizlyar in the Republic of Dagestan, which is adjacent to Chechnya. They took 2,000 civilians hostage. Again, Russian forces launched an all-out assault, killing 83 civilians and soldiers. Chechen armed forces, which are inferior to Russian Federation forces in terms of military strength, have often conducted hostage operations.

　In the second Chechen conflict, which began on August 26, 1999, Chechen armed forces invaded the neighboring Republic of Dagestan. The goal was to establish an “Islamic state” combining Dagestan and Chechnya. Russian federal troops attacked them. Then, in September, Chechen militants caused a series of five bombings in Moscow and other parts of Russia. The bombs were powerful enough to collapse concrete apartment buildings. In total, more than 300 people were killed in the attacks. At this time, the prime minister of the Russian Federation was Vladimir Putin, who had been appointed to the post by President Yeltsin. Putin immediately launched a Chechen mop-up operation, identifying the serial bombings as the work of the Chechens.

　The Russian public, angered by the mass casualties of innocent civilians, supported the Chechen cleanup operation. This time, the Russian federal army did not behave as poorly as in the first Chechen conflict and initially made good progress, which increased Russian public support for Putin In February 2000, the Russian federal army declared control of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The armed forces fled to the mountainous regions of the south. The Russian people welcomed Putin's decisive policy. Yeltsin's retirement brought Putin an overwhelming victory in the Russian presidential elections of March 2000.