09.12.1999 12:00 THE LOGISTICS OF THE COUNTER-TERRORIST OPERATION IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
Participants:
VLADIMIR I. ISSAKOV - Colonel-General, Head of Logistics of the Russian Armed Forces, Deputy Defence Minister
IVAN M. CHIZH - Colonel-General (Medicine), Head of the Main Military-Medical Directorate of the Defence Ministry
ISSAKOV: Logistics is the link between the national economy and the army. It has 12 central directorates, whose main tasks are to provide fuel, foods, uniforms and equipment, road equipment, medical and other materials, deliver and evacuate all kinds of material supplies, and provide engineering-airfield, trade and everyday services, veterinary and sanitary care.
A separate task is to provide medical assistance to the ill and wounded, evacuate them and provide medical treatment to them, hold counter-epidemics, sanitary-hygienic and preventive functions. And any conflict also implies one more, very sad, task - the organisation of the collection, preparation and delivery of the deceased to burial sites.
To provide comprehensive supplies to the group of forces in the North Caucasian region, we created a group of logistics units with 5,000 personnel. It consists of three automobile battalions, three specialised medical teams, four field hospitals, a washing-laundry and disinfecting train, and four washing-laundry stations.
The priority task is to deliver fuel. Over 3,000 tons of fuel (some 500-550 million roubles a month) are spent daily. Fuel and lubricants are delivered mostly from the refineries of Volgograd, Ryazan and Samara.
Another task is to provide the personnel with hot meals and organise meals for field units. When we cannot deliver hot meals, we issue diverse field rations, which are sufficient to make up for the loss of energy in the fighting zones.
The defence minister issued an order establishing additional rations, which consists of fat or meat (100g), butter (10g), canned fish (50g), condensed milk, sugar, cookies, polyvitamins and tea. Contract servicemen are allowed to get one pack of cigarettes a day, while conscripted servicemen are provided with ten cigarettes daily.
The hostilities in Daghestan showed that we should also ration water, 0.75l a day per capita. It is very difficult to deliver water to mountain regions. It should be in light-weight disposable flasks, which would not be damaged when dropped from helicopters and would not be a heavy burden on the troops.
We have seven bakeries in the region, providing the staff with fresh bread. If there is a stationary bakery nearby, we get its output for the troops.
We have taken all requisite measures to provide the staff with uniforms and personal equipment, including warm clothes. We are sending the latest makes to the region, in order to see if our ideas will be applicable in real conditions.
Now for the washing and laundry service. In addition to the washing-laundry disinfecting train, we have four washing-laundry stations, about 80 disinfecting showers and field steam baths.
Our bridge-laying brigade restored the bridge across the Terek outside the village of Chervlennaya in Chechnya on October 22-25. Both the troops and the local population are using this bridge now. We deliver supplies and evacuate whatever we have to by rail.
Medical assistance: Any serviceman must be assured that he will get medical aid. Our medical staff are doing their best now. You write much about this, and you write the truth. Thank you. We have 1,033 wounded now, but more ill servicemen. We have put 498 servicemen back into action.
Ivan Chizh heads the Main Military-Medical Directorate. I know how he chooses each specialist, so that they would be able to provide all kinds of assistance directly in the zone of hostilities.
We held major functions to preclude infections among the cattle. We are helping the local population to vaccinate their cattle against anthrax, carbuncle and foot and mouth disease. The other day we delivered 20 pregnant heifers, free, from our farm to the village of Kalinovskaya.
ITAR-TASS: You said 1,033 have been wounded. Did you mean in Daghestan and Chechnya, or only in Chechnya?
ISSAKOV: That's since the beginning of hostilities in Daghestan.
ITAR-TASS: And the number of dead on the federal side?
ISSAKOV: We have lost 379 men and officers. At the second stage, since October 1, we lost 261, including three yesterday.
BRATISLAVSKAYA PRAVDA: What is the main lesson of the previous Chechen campaign? Judging by everything, the current campaign was prepared much better.
ISSAKOV: One of the main lessons is that logistics groups and stores of material supplies were prepared well in advance. We did much to train troops, too, including first aid lessons and checks of equipment. All units dispatched to Chechnya are carefully trained and checked before departure.
FEDERAL NEWS AGENCY: How much did you spend on logistics for this Chechen campaign? Putin recently said in the Duma that some 3 billion roubles have been spent on the Chechen operation. How much of this sum was spent on logistics? Or did you get money directly from the Defence Ministry?
ISSAKOV: All services receive money from the Defence Ministry budget, as well as from additional allocations. We spend an average of 800 million roubles on logistics a month, most of it on fuel.
MAYAK RADIO STATION: Do you have contacts with, or help the local population in Chechnya and Daghestan? Or do you buy foods from them? Do you plan to issue the battlefield 100g of vodka to the troops? This is an old tradition.
ISSAKOV: The Chechen people have nothing to sell. On the contrary, we try to help them. We also provide medical assistance to the people. We deliver the ill and wounded to our station in Chervlennaya, provide outpatient services to the population, deliver babies, and give check-ups to schoolchildren. All medical units and establishments have been ordered to provide medical assistance to the local people. We provided them with 50,000 winter-padded jackets, trousers, children's clothes and baby wear.
As for the 100g of vodka, we did not even consider the matter. Neither was this vodka ration provided in Afghanistan. Probably because martial law has not been established in the region.
THE VOICE OF RUSSIA RADIO COMPANY: How can you explain cases of looting? And are there new logistics elements in this campaign? Do you use locally made fuel? There are mini refineries in Chechnya, which produce fuel.
ISSAKOV: The troops do not use locally made fuel, because it is not suited for our hardware.
About looting. I don't know of any cases of looting, but there are probably some. Everything depends on one's manners, on each particular person.
About new elements. All field rations, and rations for pilots stationed at non-equipped airfields are new. As for clothes, the sweaters, caps and comforters are not used in the armed forces as a rule; they were introduced specifically for this campaign. We came to the conclusion that field stoves must be changed to be able to cook different numbers of rations, say for 50, 100 or 200 personnel. The PAK-200 stoves should be replaced [with newer stoves]. As for hardware, we are using light towers, and Urals-type cross-country vehicles are used to deliver water, in view of bad road conditions.
ARGUMENTY I FAKTY: How do you evacuate the wounded from the battlefield? And how do you deliver the dead to burial sites?
ISSAKOV: We have established a system for the collection and delivery of the dead, which includes a collection station in Rostov and branches in each group of forces - the Northern, the Eastern, and the Western ones. They are equipped with the necessary vehicles, refrigerators and staff. The combat orders of all commanders set the task of evacuating the wounded and the dead. They are delivered to the collection stations, and then are taken by a specially assigned person to Rostov by helicopters and aircraft, together with the identification documents. If there are no identification documents, for some reason, then representatives of the units where the dead served are summoned to Rostov, where the body is preserved for identification. Sometimes we have to summon parents. After that the body is prepared for dispatch and airlifted, together with a specially assigned person, to the military recruitment office in question, which is responsible for the burial.
CHIZH: The medical stations and medical companies of regiments are located 400-500m away from the battlefield. Medical battalions are located 800-1,000m away from the frontline. The wounded are delivered there by medical vehicles, which every company has. All wounded are delivered to our military hospitals in Mozdok and Vladikavkaz. Or to Chervlennaya in the north, where a medical team is stationed. The delivery time varies from one to two ours. Specialised medical assistance is provided in military hospitals within two to three hours.
VREMYA I MI: What about the bodies that cannot be identified? Do you have such bodies? How hard is the Rostov laboratory working?
CHIZH: We are working on one body now. He said his name upon the delivery to the hospital, before he died. We are studying information about him. The Rostov forensics laboratory has established the names of others.
QUESTION: The press reported that privates get 1,000 dollars a month there? Is this true?
ISSAKOV: This question is not in my competence. Yet I can tell you that servicemen get 800-950 roubles, depending on the category, per day of hostilities.
RADIO-1: Everything issued to servicemen has a warranty service life. Let's talk about this. How often do the troops go to bath? How frequently do they get fresh underwear? And where do they rest and sleep? Can they take off their clothes and wash?
ISSAKOV: In fact, there are no norms for this. These clothes are changed when they become unsuitable for wear. There cannot be such norms in the hostilities zone. But there is enough underwear at the changing stations.
It is impossible to organise bath every day, but we have established so-called dry washing and change of the underwear. This happens once a week. We take the dirty clothes to the washing-laundry stations, where they are laundered, dried, checked, changed [for new], and dispatched to the changing stations.
Rest and recreation areas are created for 30% of the personnel, while others are doing their duty. The troops take turns to rest. If there is a village nearby, they use its facilities. We have dispatched a large number of candles and kerosene lamps to the region, and are pondering the possibility of providing other sources of light and heat.
It has been decided to create R&R bases, where units would be taken for several days of rest after they fulfil their tasks. They will have a medical check-up there, wash, rest, sleep, and inspect (mend, repair) their clothes, equipment and vehicles. Human beings are made so that they need rest every 30-40 days. This is why operations were planned for 15, 20 or 25 days, or up to a month, during the Second World War. The troops must be given a chance to rest, so that they can grow strong again.
QUESTION: Does the Main Military-Medical Directorate provide a rehabilitation period (psychological and medical) for the troops returning from Chechnya and Daghestan?
CHIZH: We have seriously worked on this question, and there are 12 specialists, headed by the chief psychiatrist of the armed forces, working in the zone of hostilities. Psychological rehabilitation proceeds not only when the troops are pulled back, but also in frontline units. We have methods that help the people to restore their psychological balance within a few hours. Rehabilitation treatment is also provided to those who are delivered to military hospitals.
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