US warship lands in Georgia

A US military ship carrying aid supplies arrived at the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi today after avoiding its original destination of Poti, still controlled by Russian forces.

The move came amid escalating tensions between Russia and Georgia’s Western allies.

Batumi, where the Coast Guard cutter Dallas docked, is well south of the zone of fighting in this month’s war between Russia and Georgia.

The United States and European nations have attacked Russia’s recognition of the two Georgian breakaway territories as separate nations and Moscow has also criticised the US for delivering aid to Georgia on military ships.

The US changed its version of events several times in the last 24 hours.

At first, it announced on Tuesday that its aid ship would dock at Poti.

Then early today, the embassy said that plans had changed, and the ship would dock at Batumi.

Later the US Embassy completely retracted its earlier statement that an aid ship would dock in Poti.