Russian troops roll deeper into Georgia

RUSSIAN jets staged raids and its forces moved deeper into Georgian territory yesterday as Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin denounced the US for helping Georgia.

Two EU foreign ministers pressed efforts to broker a ceasefire deal but diplomatic tensions between Russia and the US held up efforts to pass a UN Security Council call for an end to the fighting over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Russia and Georgia traded accusations that each was launching attacks, while aid agencies warned of a mounting humanitarian crisis, heightening urgency to international efforts to secure a halt to the fighting.

The Georgian foreign ministry said more than 50 Russian warplanes had flown over Georgian territory. “Tbilisi was bombed. Bombs hit the village of Kojori and Makhata mountain,” it said.

Georgian officials said Russian planes bombed radars at Tbilisi airport and civilian targets in the city of Gori, where the UN refugee agency said 80% of the 50,000 population had fled because of Russian attacks.

Russian forces carried out military operations around the western city of Senaki to prevent Georgian troops from regrouping and heading back to South Ossetia.

A Russian military spokesman said 9,000 troops and more than 350 armoured vehicles would be deployed to bolster forces inside the second Georgian separatist region of Abhkazia.

Meanwhile, the South Ossetian separatist government said Georgia had resumed an artillery bombardment of Tskhinvali, where residents have reported many deaths.

The international Red Cross said it was getting increasing reports of civilian casualties from the conflict in South Ossetia and beyond.

As fighting intensified, US president George W Bush, Georgia’s biggest western ally, said: “I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia.”

Putin responded by accusing the US of trying to disrupt the Russian military operation by transporting Georgian troops from Iraq into the “conflict zone”.

“It seems that this will not change anything, but will move us away from resolving the situation,” said Putin.

Putin compared the actions of Georgia’s president Mikheil Saakashvili to war crimes perpetrated by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“Saddam Hussein, of course, needed to be hanged for destroying several Shi’ite villages,” said Putin. “But [not] the current Georgian leadership, which in less than an hour drove tanks through children and old people, burned people alive in their homes.”

Russia’s military acknowledged it had lost 18 soldiers and four planes in the conflict but gave no details of its latest operations.

Saakashvili said several hundred Russian servicemen had been killed and 18 or 19 Russian aircraft shot down.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and Finland’s Alexander Stubb put forward an EU peace plan to Saakashvili who signed the peace proposal.

It calls for a ceasefire, medical help for victims, controlled withdrawals of troops on both sides and eventual political talks.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy will go to Georgia today. He is due in Moscow to try to hammer out a ceasefire, said Kouchner.

Kouchner and Stubb later arrived in Vladikavkaz, in the Russian territory of North Ossetia, over the border from the conflict zone, where many casualties have been evacuated.

In Washington, foreign ministers from the G7 countries yesterday urged Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire called by Georgia.

On Friday, Russia sent troops, tanks and air support into South Ossetia after Georgia launched an offensive to seize control of the province, which broke from Georgia in the early 1990s.