He was transferred to the North Caucasus in the leadup to the Second Chechen War between October and November 1999, becoming deputy commander of the northern front during the conflict.

Following several days of fighting to retake the area of his disappearance, his body was located and recovered on 23 January, after which he was transported to Vladikavkaz and then Saint Petersburg, with memorial services taking place at both.

Mikhail Yuryevich Malofeyev was born on 25 May 1956 in Nakhodka, Primorsky Krai, Russia,[1] where his parents had been assigned to work as specialists following graduation from college.

[5] In the spring of 1995 he went to Chechnya as an assistant to the commander of the division's 129th Guards Motor Rifle (Peacekeeping) Regiment, deployed to take part in the First Chechen War.

[6] Promoted to major general in June 1999, Malofeyev became deputy chief of the Combat Training Directorate of the Leningrad Military District a month later.

[1][2] At the time of his disappearance, Malofeyev was the deputy commander of the northern front of the Russian Ground Forces in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War[2][7][8] and head of the combat training department of the 58th Guards Combined Arms Army in the North Caucasus Military District.

[15] On 22 September, Deputy Interior Minister lieutenant general Igor Zubov declared that approximately 30,000 Russian troops had surrounded Chechnya and were ready to invade if ordered while also ruling out an offensive at the time.

[22] One Russian officer said in late January that approximately 20 conscripts from a single regiment were killed by Chechens who had flanked them by using the sewer system to attack them from behind.

[26] On around 22 January, Chechen commander Baudi Bakuyev stated that the Russian military would soon be receiving a video tape proving that Malofeyev was still alive.

[9] According to one account, he was with the 245th Motorized Infantry Regiment on the western outskirts of Grozny and was sheltering in a building with some officers and soldiers when they were attacked, with Malofeyev failing to return.

[1][21][28] Unnamed Russian military sources stated on 20 January that he had been wounded by sniper fire in an ambush in north-western Grozny and were not sure whether he had been killed or captured.

[30] Kazantsev stated told Interfax "[Malofeyev] behaved as a hero and, when an assault team of the Interior [Ministry] troops tarried, led a small group forward so that the main forces could act,” and that he "was wounded in his head.

[3] At the funeral, attended by hundreds, Putin and Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev declared: "In order for peace to come to Chechen land, we must win."

[32] He was posthumously awarded Russia's highest honor, the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, on 9 February for "courage and heroism displayed during the liquidation of illegal armed formations in the North Caucasus."