The attack was conducted by armed formations of the opposition Provisional Council, led by Umar Avturkhanov [ru], with a clandestine support of Russian Federation armor and aircraft on 26 November 1994.

Forces of Umar Avturkhanov [ru] (a former officer of the Soviet MVD) and Beslan Gantemirov (a former mayor of Grozny and Dudayev's ally-turned-enemy) received from Moscow not only money but also training and arms, including heavy weapons.

By this time, the opposition had established a well armed force of several hundred men, equipped with armoured vehicles and covertly backed by Russian helicopters operating from an air base at Mozdok, Republic of North Ossetia–Alania.

[6] Disappointed by their failures and aware of their military weakness up to and after the October assault, the Chechen opposition, aided by an ethnic-Chechen former chairman of the State Duma, Ruslan Khasbulatov, intensified their lobbying with the FSK and Russian president Boris Yeltsin's staff in favour of more direct involvement on Moscow's part.

As a result, Avturkhanov and Gantemirov, who by then have joined their militias, received all the weapons, instructors, training and media support they requested, setting the ground for the final assault.

[8] The issues of recruitment (Russian tank commanders were reportedly offered an equivalent of $1,500 to participate in the coup) and transfer of weapons involved the deputy director of the FSK in charge of supervising the Caucasus, General Sergei Stepashin (his emissary to Chechnya was the FSK Colonel Khromchenko) and Russia's Deputy Minister for Nationalities, General Alexander Kotenkov, as well as his direct superior, Nikolai Yegorov.

[14] On 10 December 1994, tens of thousands of Russian regulars were ordered to move towards Grozny from Dagestan, Ingushetia and North Ossetia, and the First Chechen War officially began.