RUSSIA . . . SHOWDOWN BUILDING IN CHECHNYA

Even as representatives of Russia and the insurgent republic of Chechnya huddled today for a second day of peace talks to end the budding civil war, fighting intensified between Russian jets and gunships and Chechen forces. In scattered skirmishes, Chechen troops killed at least two Russians, while Russian jets and gunships wounded at least two rebels. (Chechen claims that two Russian planes were downed remain unconfirmed.) Even as the Kremlin promised there would be no assault on Grozny, Russian troops have nearly encircled the city and warned the bloodshed would intensify unless the Chechen forces give up. But Chechnya's President Dzhokhar Dudayev, a former Soviet air force general, decided to play chicken. Russian forces "will be attacked from the rear in a traditional tactic of mountaineers: hit and run, hit and run, which will exhaust them until they, out of fear and terror, give up," he said on Russian TV.