In Grozny, a Symbolic Victory for Russia

Russia has won this round of the battle for Grozny, but only because the Chechens decided to bring it to a close. Rebel spokesmen announced Tuesday that they had abandoned the capital, and Western reporters confirmed that the Russian flag now flies over the fiercely contested Minutka Square. Many of the rebel fighters who managed to break through Russian lines in a bloody retreat have regrouped at the village of Alkhan-Khala, planning to head south into the mountains. Russian forces have reportedly surrounded the village, but haven't tried to advance on the rebel positions there. Capturing Grozny, of course, is primarily of symbolic importance, because the object of a counterinsurgency war is less to capture territory than it is to isolate and destroy guerrilla forces. The rebels have long maintained that their game plan was always to withdraw from Grozny after making the Russians pay a heavy price for the city — which they've certainly done. "This is less a retreat than a tactical maneuver," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier. "The Chechens were always planning to retreat from Grozny on their own terms. Now the Russians will try to hold it, while the Chechens regroup and prepare for partisan strikes, hoping to repeat the scenario of August 1996 when they recaptured the city after their last retreat."

The overnight rebel withdrawal that began Monday, however, appears to have been anything but the carefully planned and executed tactical retreat the guerrillas may have envisaged: Chechen sources admitted Tuesday that dozens of fighters and commanders were killed or wounded when a large contingent of rebels found themselves trapped on a minefield and were then cut to pieces by Russian artillery. A number of top Chechen leaders were reportedly killed in the fierce fighting to break through the Russian lines, and the rebels' top commander, Shamil Basayev, was reported to have been badly wounded when his car detonated a mine. Both sides now have paid a heavy price in the battle for Grozny — but that's never stopped them from fighting on.