The First Chechen War, also known as the First Chechen Campaign, or the First Russian-Chechen war, was a war of independence which the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria waged against the Russian Federation from December 1994 to August 1996. The first war was preceded by the Russian Intervention in Ichkeria, in which Russia tried covertly to overthrow the Ichkerian government. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya, but they faced heavy resistance from Chechen guerrillas and raids on the flatlands. Despite Russia's overwhelming advantages in firepower, manpower, weaponry, artillery, combat vehicles, airstrikes and air support, the resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces and the almost universal opposition to the conflict by the Russian public led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire with the Chechens in 1996, and finally, it signed a peace treaty in 1997.

The official Russian estimate of Russian military deaths was 5,732, but according to other estimates, the number of Russian military deaths was as high as 14,000. According to various estimates, the number of Chechen military deaths was approximately 3,000, the number of Chechen civilian deaths was between 30,000 and 100,000. Over 200,000 Chechen civilians may have been injured, more than 500,000 people were displaced, and cities and villages were reduced to rubble across the republic.

Пе́рвая чече́нская война́ (Операция по восстановлению конституционного порядка в Чечне 1994—1996 годов, официально с 2002 года, Вооружённый конфликт в Чеченской Республике и на прилегающих к ней территориях Российской Федерации; также известна как Первая чеченская кампания и Первая российско-чеченская война, чечен. Хьалхара оьрсийн-нохчийн тӀом) — боевые действия на территории Чечни и в приграничных регионах Северного Кавказа между войсками России (ВС и МВД) и непризнанной Чеченской Республикой Ичкерия с целью восстановления российской власти на территории Чечни, на которой в 1991 году была провозглашена Чеченская Республика Ичкерия.