51.   But the Chechen rebels have made it clear they will accept only one peace, and that is a peace with no Russian soldiers on their soil.

52.   But Russian soldiers say that the rebels gradually have returned and infiltrated the peaceful population.

53.   But there were no details of their harrowing ordeal, or how they managed to escape a village guarded by Chechens and surrounded by a ring of Russian soldiers.

54.   But what Kalamanov has not yet been able to do is to bring Russian soldiers to justice.

55.   But those figures are generally regarded by many, including the Russian soldiers themselves, to be a gross underestimate.

56.   By last Wednesday, Russian soldiers shivering in the fields surrounding the village had run out of food, water and batteries for their radios.

57.   But, by and large, Russian soldiers were not much in evidence.

58.   Camera crews showed images of masked Chechen rebels slouching in buildings under their control, and Russian soldiers firing machine guns on the outskirts of town.

59.   Cars traveling at night are routinely fired upon by Russian troops, and Chechen rebels spend much of every night trying to pick off Russian soldiers.

60.   Chechen commanders promptly displayed the captured letters, passports and other documents of Russian soldiers.