Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev, speaking from a Grozny bunker he claimed was just 300 meters from the ruined hulk of his Presidential Palace, has said his heart aches for the people of Chechnya whom he has been unable to defend from the Russian "repulsive empire."


In an interview with the Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy late Monday night, Dudayev said that although his son, Avlur, may be dead, "I have no time to think of Avlur; I have other concerns. I have 30,000 innocent civilian victims. My heart aches for the destitute whom I could not defend."


For 25 minutes the Chechen leader talked to Vladimir Varfolomeyev, the news editor of Ekho Moskvy, whom he called from a recently purchased satellite phone.


"The capital of the Chechen Republic looks like a layer cake," he told Varfolomeyev. But after six weeks of battle, he denied that the Russians had taken his city. "The Russian troops do not control anything, they simply have assembled in various places and are completely surrounded." The only thing preventing the Chechens from striking at the Russians, he said, is that they are amid civilians.


Varfolomeyev said that Dudayev, whom he had known for 3 1/2 years, sounded on the verge of a breakdown. "I thought he was close to hysterics," he said. "In conversation, he switched from one thought to another, and he didn't even notice it. He was almost screaming."


Nevertheless, Varfolomeyev got the impression that Dudayev is in control of the situation, or at least of the Chechen troops that remain in Grozny.


Dudayev told Ekho Moskvy that for every Chechen soldier who dies, 100 Russians are killed, and he placed the number of Russian dead between 12,000 and 13,000. Any hostages the Chechens have taken, he said, will not be given back until there is a truce. "A war is on, an aggressive movement against the Chechen Republic is on. Here, there are no morals or ethics. We are not a peacekeeping organization."


It was not the first time Dudayev had called Varfolomeyev. The two were introduced in Grozny and Varfolomeyev said Dudayev sought him out periodically to get his message across. Monday's call was arranged by the Chechen press ministers.


Varfolomeyev said Dudayev was ready for peace talks at a moment's notice. But President Boris Yeltsin has said he will not hold talks with Dudayev, and the Chechen president himself said he doesn't know whom he would speak to. Dudayev claims Yeltsin is not in control of events in the Kremlin and that the war in Chechnya is being run by a "Korzhakov junta," named for Major General Alexander Korzhakov, the head of Yeltsin's guards.


Peace talks seemed a considerable way off, as Russian troops continued to pulverize Grozny with artillery fire Tuesday, while Chechen fighters carried out hit and run attacks on Russian positions.


From their forward positions near the central train station, the Russians let loose an all-night barrage with artillery, rocket launchers and mortars, The Associated Press reported.


In the first reported incident of its kind since the Chechnya war started Dec. 11, a Russian army truck was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade far behind the Russian lines, near the operation's headquarters in Mozdok, North Ossetia, outside Chechnya, Interfax reported Tuesday.


Germany, meanwhile, kept open the possibility of economic sanctions against Russia if Moscow did not end the bloodshed in Chechnya and seek a political solution in the region, Reuters reported.


"If the Russian government does not respect the principles that we expect of them, then we will not and cannot rule out economic sanctions," Economics Minister Guenter Rexrodt told German radio from St. Petersburg, where he was holding bilateral talks on economic cooperation.


His comments followed a decision Monday by the European Union to demand an immediate end to the Chechnya conflict but the 15-nation bloc refrained from using immediate economic sanctions to try to force the issue.