RUSSIA . . . CHECHNYA WAR AT FULL TILT

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Russian forces dropped bombs and advanced toward the heart of Chechnya amid fierce shelling today, after the separatist republic snubbed a Saturday ultimatum from Moscow to drop their arms and the effort to open peace talks failed Sunday. While Russian warplanes set a gas refinery on fire in a bombing raid outside the Chechen capital, Grozny, and two missiles hit the city directly, Russian troops, sent into the Caucasus mountain region last week, encountered heavy resistance. But President Boris Yeltsin faced growing opposition to the intervention as thousands of worried parents sent Yeltsin telegrams asking for information about their sons, and today, a former prime minister urged the Russian people to take to the streets in protest.