Battle of Galashki (2002)

Sergei Fridinskii had reported that on 15 September 2002 200 militants crossed the Russian-Georgian border.[5] Vladimir Putin had accused Georgia of harboring the Chechen militants in the Pankisi Gorge. He also threatened to have Russian military deal with the rebels there if Georgia didn't.[2]

During the mid-September of 2002, in the base camp located near the Chechen village of Kharsenoy, a meeting of prominent Chechen commanders like Aslan Maskhadov, Shamil Basaev and Doku Umarov was held. It's possible that there, it was planned to make the raid from the Pankisi Gorge into Russia. It's also possible that so called "anti-criminal" operations made by the Ministry of Defense of Georgia also gave a reason for the Chechen militants to withdraw from Pankisi Gorge.[1]

The Chechen militants had aimed to pass through Ingushetia from the territory of Georgia with the aim of further passage to Chechnya.[4] At night of 26 September 2002, around 100 to 300[lower-alpha 2] Chechen militants under command of Ruslan Gelayev or Abdul-Malik Mezhidov[lower-alpha 1] entered into battle with Russian troops near the Ingush village of Galashki after part of the Chechen militants under command of Abdul Malik was accidentally noticed by the 58th Combined Arms Army of Russian federal forces.[6]

The battle lasted over 10 hours; on around 14:00 per Moscow Time the battle hostilities on the battleground began declining, which was managed because of the massive artillery fire of Russian forces on the Abdul Malik's detachment. The artillery fire pushed the remaining militants into an abandoned livestock farm, located about two kilometers from Galashki.[6]

The militants shot down one Mi-24 helicopter from the Igla MANPADS, knocking out two from grenade launchers armored personnel carrier and killing 12 soldiers and officers of the federal troops.[3] Russian troops actively used artillery, aviation, armored vehicles. 76 militants were destroyed, several were taken prisoner. The militants, breaking up into mobile detachments, fled to the territory of Chechnya.[1]