The Russian troop pullout from Chechnya is expected to be completed by Sunday - about two weeks earlier than planned.
Maj. Gen. Pavel Maslov said more than 8,000 Interior Ministry soldiers had left the breakaway southern republic since the final withdrawal began this month. In addition, the Interfax news agency reported the army has pulled out about 3,000 troops.The Russian withdrawal will be complete by Jan. 5, Maslov said, clearing the way for elections in the republic, which is effectively controlled by separatists already.
The military had previously said the withdrawal would be completed only a few days before the Jan. 27 election.
Some troops that have already left Chechnya are shivering in snow-covered tents and live on handouts from local people, Russian television reported Sunday.
The local government was providing the departing soldiers with cold medicine as the temperature dropped to below zero Sunday.
Farmers and the Soldiers' Mothers Committee are sending food. Even retirees, who have gone months without their pensions because of the gaping federal deficit, are bringing potatoes, socks and cigarettes.
"Frankly, they just would have died from cold and starvation" without the handouts, a city official, Yevgeny Sundukov, told NTV.
Conditions in the army have never been good, but post-Soviet budget cuts have left it without the resources to feed, clothe, shelter and train its soldiers.
Many units fighting in Chechnya were cobbled together when the war turned out to be longer and harder than Russia's overconfident commanders expected.