Russians continue campaign in Georgia
Russian forces pushed a second front deep into Georgia, seizing towns and a military base in the western parts of the country.
Georgia’s president said his country had been effectively cut in half with the capture of the main east-west highway near the central city of Gori.
The Russian Defence Ministry denied Georgian claims of taking Gori and rejected allegations that its forces were preparing to head for the capital, Tbilisi, according to Russian news reports.
But it appeared that Russia aimed to use its huge military to intimidate its diminutive neighbour and force it to abandon any hope of regaining control of two Russian-backed separatist provinces.
Russia’s massive and multi-pronged offensive has drawn wide criticism from the West, but Russia has rejected calls for a ceasefire and angrily justified its actions as necessary to protect its citizens; most of the residents of the separatist regions have Russian passports.
Rebel troops in one of the provinces, Abkhazia, launched an operation early today to push out Georgian forces from the northern Kodori gorge, the only area of Abkhazia still under Georgian control, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported.
Russian officials, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, have accused Georgia of committing genocide by launching an offensive last week to try to retake control of the other separatist province, South Ossetia.
Georgia’s pro-US leadership in turn alleges Russia aims to violently overturn its government on the pretext of protecting Russian citizens.
Fighting raged around Tskhinvali, the region’s capital. Russia also launched new air raids across Georgia, with at least one sending screaming civilians running for cover.
The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, told CNN that Russian forces were cleansing Abkhazia of ethnic Georgians.
“I directly accuse Russia of ethnic cleansing,” he said.
Diplomats from New York to Paris sought solutions to end the fighting.
At an emergency Security Council meeting in New York asked for by Georgia, UN officials B. Lynn Pascoe and Edmond Mulet confirmed that Russian troops have driven well beyond South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
They said Russian airborne troops did not meet any resistance while taking control of Georgia’s Senaki army base.
“A full military invasion of Georgia is going on,” Georgian Ambassador Irakli Alasania told reporters later. “Now I think Security Council has to act.”
France circulated a draft resolution that would have the council call for an immediate end to fighting and a start to negotiations. The 15-nation council is expected to take up the draft proposal today.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was heading to the capitals of both Russia and Georgia to meet Russian president Dmitri Medvedev and Mr Saakashvili today following a European Union peace mission by the French and Finnish foreign ministers that resulted in Georgia’s president signing a ceasefire.
