Chechnya's President introduced martial law and called for a holy war yesterday after Russia said its forces had already seized one-third of the rebel region and had not yet finished their advance.
Officials said the number of refugees fleeing the north Caucasus province because of the Russian push and nearly two weeks of air raids grew by 7,000 in the last 24 hours. The total exceeds 120,000, and many sleep in the open.
Russian forces and guerrillas exchanged fire overnight. Russian troops have pressed through mostly empty steppe to the Terek river which bisects the region, with the stated aim of setting up a buffer zone to contain Islamic guerrillas.
Military analysts suggested they would stop there, at least for a time, rather than pursue guerrillas into the densely populated valleys and mountains to the south. But the Defence Minister, Mr Igor Sergeyev, declined to rule out a further advance.
"Everything will depend on concrete developments," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying in Moscow.
President Aslan Maskhadov's martial law decree came into effect at midnight (9 p.m. Irish time) on Tuesday, but there were few signs of its effects on the streets of the regional capital, Grozny.
Street markets remained open despite fighting nearby.
There have been electricity blackouts and natural gas has been cut off, yet many residents have remained behind, conducting life as close to normal as possible.
Artillery fire from the front has been audible for days.
Mr Maskhadov's decree is mainly symbolic in a region where unruly warlords hold more sway than the president. He called on Chechnya's Muslim religious leaders to summon the nation to holy war, "to defend the sovereignty and integrity of the country in the name of Allah the benevolent and merciful".
Chechnya's representative in Moscow, Mr Mairbek Vachagayev, told Ekho Moskvy radio: "From today, Chechnya accepts the war offered to it by Russia."
Russian and guerrilla forces exchanged fire overnight in the northern districts of Shelkovskoy and Naursk near the Terek.
Gen Anatoly Kvashnin, Russia's armed forces chief-of-staff, who arrived in the area yesterday, said the present stage of the operation would finish when a security zone with Russian administration was in place, Interfax news agency said.
The Russian Prime Minister, Mr Vladimir Putin, said on Tuesday that Russia would restore its law in the territory it now controls. Mr Putin has said Russia's ultimate aim is to destroy Islamic rebels, whom Moscow blames for intruding into the southern region of Dagestan and for carrying out a series of apartment block bombings last month. Nearly 300 people died in the blasts.
A spokesman for Russia's Emergencies Ministry said the number of registered refugees had risen to nearly 125,000 from 118,000 on Tuesday. More than 111,000 of them were sheltering in Ingushetia, the only neighbouring region still admitting them.
Russian military officials say they are waging a "pinpoint campaign" of air strikes against the guerrillas, their bases and their training camps. They have also targeted oil refineries, which they say provide the rebels with money for weapons.
Mr Chris Patten, the EU Commissioner for Foreign Relations, will deliver a firm Western demand to Russia today to show restraint in Chechnya and avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
Western concern over Moscow's military assault on the region is likely to dominate a long-scheduled day of talks in Moscow on relations between Russia and the EU, which also wants to press the Kremlin on financial reforms and money-laundering.
"The main theme for us is Chechnya, and I can assure you it will be raised prominently. You can expect quite outspoken comments by Mr Patten," his spokesman said.
Mr Patten, who will be accompanied by the Finnish and Portuguese Foreign Ministers, will also take care to underline the EU's respect for Russia's territorial integrity and sympathy with Moscow's desire to halt terrorist attacks.