Russian forces begin nal push to capture Grozny URUS-MARTAN, Russia (AP) - After weeks of ferocious fighting, Russian forces penetrated the center of Grozny yesterday and started a final assault to take control of the capital of separatist Chechnya, Russian officers said. Russian troops were pushing into the center from east and west and had established control over part of central Grozny, said Lt. Col. Konstantin Kukharenko, a Defense Ministry spokesperson. "The decisive phase of the liberation of Grozny has started," he said, adding that the city would soon fall. The military's claims could not be confirmed. There was no immediate indication that the estimated 2,000 well-entrenched rebels in Grozny had fled the city. The city has been the center of Chechen rebel resistance, and its capture would give Russian forces a huge victory after humiliating military setbacks. Russia has boasted several times that it was close to capturing Grozny, only to be driven back by the rebels, who have launched counterattacks in recent weeks in and around the capital. After facing little resistance in their steady march across Chechnya's northern lowlands, Russian troops have been stalled at Grozny for months and only recently began pressing into rebel strongholds in the southern mountains. Chechen commanders admitted yesterday that there was heavy fighting in central Grozny. Aslanbek Ismailov, the Chechens' deputy chief of staff, told the Interfax news agency that the Russians were trying to reach "the most strategically important" site in Grozny, a bridge crossing the Sunzha River that is a major transit route for rebels. A Russian spokesperson, Valentin Astafyev, told NTV television that federal troops have reached the bridge. Russian aircraft and artillery bombarded rebel positions without pause yesterday. The air force said its planes and helicopter gunships flew 80 combat sorties over Grozny and southern mountain regions yesterday morning, and that the raids would be stepped up throughout the day, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Russian jets struck the Vedeno and Argun gorges, which lead through rebel-held mountains to the republic of Georgia. Artillery systematically shelled the rebel town of Vedeno. Russian forces control the heights around Vedeno, but they have been cautious about entering the town, believed to shelter many well-armed militants. Instead, they laced footpaths and fields around Vedeno with mines. "But we can't lay mines everywhere!," said an exhausted Capt. Andrei Kulov. He said a helicopter was flying regularly from Georgia to the Chechen mountains to deliver supplies to the rebels. Federal troops have been unable to intercept the helicopter because it changes routes, he said. Russian forces took control over the Sharoi region, near Chechnya's mountainous border with Georgia, on Monday, after three days of heavy fighting and 100 Russian casualties, according to officers in the south. They reported that rebels had kept huge stores of weapons and food in the region. The official death toll continued to be much lower. Eight Russian soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in Chechnya over the past 24 hours, Astafyev, the military spokesperson, told NTV. He said 60 rebels had been killed over the same period. Both sides in the war tend to underestimate its own losses and overstate the other's. In Russian-controlled areas, civilians continued to report attacks by Russian troops. Yesterday, an Associated Press reporter saw three Russian helicopter gunships attack two cars near the city of Urus-Martan, killing two people and injuring three. It was not clear why the helicopters had targeted the cars. Originally on page 3A in the 1-19-2000 issue of the Daily.