RUSSIA . . . CHECHNYA PEACE TALKS COLLAPSE

Chechnya's president today yanked his delegates from peace talks with Moscow, urging the Caucasian region's 1.2 million inhabitants to fight to the death for independence. "It's a war for life or death," President Dzhokhar Dudayev declared in a televised address. Of Russian troops, he said: "The soil must burn their feet." The Kremlin, meanwhile, shelled the outskirts of Grozny, the Chechen capital, and issued an ultimatum after Chechen forces shot down a Russian helicopter, killing two on board. If Chechnya doesn't lay down its arms Thursday, it will face "all consequences of their criminal recklessness."