President Boris Yeltsin said yesterday he was confident that Russian forces would defeat Chechen-backed Islamist rebels in Dagestan as fighting raged for a sixth day in the mountainous North Caucasus region.
Planes and artillery pounded the separatists, who under the command of the Chechen Islamist leader Shamil Basayev seized Dagestani villages and proclaimed a holy war against Moscow.
"We believe that gradually, as we have planned, without hurry, this problem (of the revolt) can be overcome," Mr Yeltsin said in televised remarks during Kremlin talks with officials.
As he spoke, four military transport planes landed in the Dagestan capital, Makhachkala, with more men and supplies.
Itar-Tass news agency said reinforcements would include divisions of the 58th Army, based in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz, who, it said, were experienced in mountain combat.
The airforce chief, Gen Anatoly Kornukov, said federal forces would be able to stabilise the situation in two to three days and that Russia had so far made about 200 air strikes against the rebels.
The head of Dagestan's national assembly, Mr Mukhu Aliyev, told a Moscow news conference that Dagestanis remained loyal to Russia and that local people were being armed to rebuff the invaders.
"We have had our problems with Russia down through history but we have made our choice . . . Our fate is tied up with that of the Russian Federation," said Mr Aliyev.
Dagestan, like Chechnya, is mostly Muslim but unlike its more homogeneous neighbour is a complex mixture of nationalities.
The Russian Deputy Interior Minister, Mr Igor Zubov, said that thousands of Dagestani volunteers were joining the fight against the rebels, estimated to number up to 1,500.
"Clearly it is difficult to achieve victory over partisan bands but we will do everything possible to free the occupied villages and to destroy the bandits," he said.
At least 10 Russians have died, and 27, including three generals, have been wounded in fighting so far. Mr Zubov said the rebel losses were "three times" greater but gave no figures.
Among the dead was an officer whose helicopter came under fire. Among the injured were three Interior Ministry generals.
Not all Russians were as confident as Mr Yeltsin and his government about success in Dagestan.
A defence analyst, Mr Pavel Felgenhauer, writing in the English-language Moscow Times, said Russian troops risked a repeat of the Chechen disaster because of poor co-ordination and distrust between the Interior and Defence ministries.