MOSCOW. An informal meeting of the UN Security Council has produced no results, Agence France Presse reported, quoting diplomatic sources. The Council was unable to pass a document on the Russian-Georgian conflict over the situation in South Ossetia.

“Obviously, the conflict is now spreading to other Georgian regions, including Abkhazia,” Jan Grauls, the Permanent Representative (Ambassador) of Belgium to the UN, told journalists. Belgium presided in the UN Security Council in August.

“We have concluded that it is very difficult, and even impossible to find a common ground for a statement,” Grauls said.

On Saturday, August 9, Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh said Abkhazian forces had started using aircraft and artillery systems to force out Georgian units from the Kodori Gorge.

In May 2006, Georgia deployed its troops in the Kodori Gorge in violation of the Moscow ceasefire and disengagement agreement. After that, Abkhazia stopped taking part in full-scale talks to settle the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict.

MOSCOW – VLADIKAVKAZ. Moscow has described the actions of the Georgian leadership in South Ossetia as genocide and has promised to render aid to the republic. Tbilisi claims that it is reinstating “constitutional order” in the country.

The self-proclaimed republic faces a humanitarian catastrophe after Georgian forces invaded its territory in the early hours of August 8 and used Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, tanks, artillery pieces and mortars to shell Tskhinval, the capital of the republic. Before that, Georgian snipers fired at civilians. A considerable part of Tskhinval has been destroyed. The South Ossetian government said about 2,000 people had been killed. Fifteen peacekeepers were killed, and over 150 injured.

Units of the 58th Russian Army moved in to support the peacekeeping forces. Russian officials said under existing international agreements, including the 1999 Agreement, Moscow was carrying out a peacekeeping mission and was required to take protective action if any of the parties to the ceasefire agreement violated its provisions.

In the evening of August 9, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, after attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics. Putin, who had to change the schedule of his trip, chaired a meeting in Vladikavkaz, and said the actions of Georgian authorities in South Ossetia were “a crime against their own nation,” and that Russia’s actions were “absolutely justified and legitimate from the legal standpoint.”Putin said Russia had always treated Georgia with great respect, and had considered it a fraternal nation.

The prime minister announced that the Russian government was drafting a programme to rebuild housing in South Ossetia, and that it would be ready to allocate 10 billion roubles ($37 million) during its initial stage. Another 500 million roubles ($18.5 million) will be spent on housing for South Ossetian refugees in North Ossetia, Putin said. From August 2 to 9, as many as 34,000 South Ossetian refugees crossed the Russian border.

The prime minister visited the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s tent hospital in Alagir, North Ossetia, where South Ossetian refugees are being treated. The refugees told the Russian prime minister about the atrocities of Georgian soldiers. They said the Georgians had burned several girls alive in a village in the Znaur District.

“This is real genocide. They are absolutely crazy. This has nothing to do with civilised behaviour,” Putin said.

ROKI PASS. Although the situation in Tskhinval is difficult, the city is not being shelled, Tskhinval resident Liana Valiyeva told RIA Novosti over the phone.

“We have been hiding in a basement all this time, with no electricity or drinking water. We manage to go out only rarely to phone our relatives in Russia,”Valiyeva said.

She said a large group of women and children were hiding in a basement of a five-storey block of flats, and that they were drinking water from a ruptured conduit.

Valiyeva said all the flats inside the building had been damaged, and that some of them had burned out completely after direct artillery-shell hits. The neighbouring multi-storey blocks of flats suffered even greater damage, she said.

Tonight was the calmest period since the conflict began, Valiyeva said.

MOSCOW – TBILISI. A Georgian Interior Ministry report on the withdrawal of Georgian forces from South Ossetia is not true. Georgian troops continue active combat operations and are firing at Tskhinval residential areas, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force’s command told RIA Novosti.

Shota Utiashvili, head of the Georgian Interior Ministry’s Analytical Department, earlier said Georgian government forces had left South Ossetian territory. “Just like Saakashvili’s statement prior to the aggression on the impossibility of using military force in conflict areas, this report is just another lie,” the source said.

MOSCOW. Russia and Georgia agreed to open two humanitarian corridors for South Ossetian refugees a source at the headquarters of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone told RIA Novosti. “The sides have agreed to open two humanitarian corridors for evacuating Georgian and Ossetian refugees, injured people and Russian journalists from South Ossetia to the north and to the south. Those Russian journalists who wanted to leave Tskhinval have already been evacuated to Vladikavkaz,” the source said.

MOSCOW. Peacekeepers control most of Tskhinval, and Georgia is withdrawing its troops from the city, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, told a RIA Novosti briefing.

“We confirm the night-time withdrawal of Georgian troops from Tskhinval. As of today, Russian peacekeepers control most of the city, and Georgia has started withdrawing its units from Tskhinval,” General Nogovitsyn said.

MOSCOW. Russian and Georgian military leaders, whose units are fighting each other in South Ossetia, are not maintaining direct contacts, said Deputy General Staff Chief Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn.

“They are not maintaining direct contacts for obvious reasons,” General Nogovitsyn told a RIA Novosti briefing.

A source at the headquarters of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone said earlier in the day that Russia and Georgia had agreed to open two humanitarian corridors for refugees from South Ossetia.

MOSCOW. About 7,400 Georgian soldiers supported by 100 tanks and artillery pieces are now involved in the fighting near Tskhinval, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force’s command told RIA Novosti over the telephone. “The city is under fire, the snipers are shooting intensively at various targets, including civilians,” the source said.

MOSCOW. Western countries are using double standards to assess the situation in South Ossetia, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told a RIA Novosti briefing.

“The tragedy in South Ossetia casts a new light on the international community’s role. It highlights the danger of cynicism and double standards which, unfortunately, are applied by a number of countries that consider themselves responsible members of the international community,” Karasin said. He said Western countries had once again missed an opportunity to prove that they had discarded their biased attitude and policy of double standards with regard to Russia.

“The West has once again behaved strangely. It fell silent in the first few hours after the aggression began and then started criticising and doubting Russia’s actions in South Ossetia, and their goals and pace. This puts in question the West’s attitude towards our country,” Karasin said.

MOSCOW. The Russian Army and units of the self-proclaimed South Ossetian Republic’s Defence Ministry are seizing initiative in the conflict. Russian peacekeepers now control most of Tskhinval, and Georgia is withdrawing its troops from the city, Deputy General Staff Chief Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn told a RIA Novosti briefing.

“We confirm the night-time withdrawal of Georgian troops from Tskhinval. As of today, Russian peacekeepers control most of the city, and Georgia has started withdrawing its units from Tskhinval,” General Nogovitsyn said. He said Georgian forces outnumbered their opponents in South Ossetia twelve to one prior to the conflict’s escalation. “This is why Russia was forced to increase its army units,” General Nogovitsyn said.

On Sunday, Russia did not receive any official proposals on initial peace talks from the Georgian side. Russian and Georgian military leaders, whose units are confronting each other in South Ossetia, are not maintaining direct contacts. “They are not maintaining direct contacts for obvious reasons,” General Nogovitsyn said.

“The president of Russia has clearly set forth Russia’s stand. We had opposed all violence, while carrying out the peacekeeping mission in the region from the very outset,” he said.

General Nogovitsyn flatly denied reports from Tbilisi that Russian aircraft were bombing residential areas in Georgia.

“Georgia has named some adjacent villages and towns and said they were being subjected to Russian air strikes. I can say with all responsibility that the Russian side has not hit a single village or town,” General Nogovitsyn said.

He said the Georgian side was distorting the truth. “We are locating secondechelon Georgian military formations that, as we know, will be involved in the war against South Ossetian forces. We are interested in these Georgian formations, which are our only target,” General Nogovitsyn said. Commenting on some media reports about an alleged blockade of the Georgian coast by warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, General Nogovitsyn said: “If we use military terminology, a military blockade implies the use of force against an enemy fleet. We are not taking such action.” He stressed that Russia was conducting a peacekeeping mission, and that it was not at war with Georgia.

A source at the Russian Navy’s Main Headquarters earlier told RIA Novosti that a Black Sea Fleet task force, including the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the fleet’s flagship, had approached the Georgian sea border on Sunday. After that, some media said Georgia was being subjected to a naval blockade. In reality, the ships are stationed off the Abkhazian coast and are ready to prevent a possible local conflict.

There is no fighting in Abkhazia, General Nogovitsyn stressed.

MOSCOW. Humanitarian corridors have opened for refugees from South Ossetia, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador at Large Yury Popov told RIA Novosti over the telephone from Tbilisi.

“I have been told that these corridors are already open. As a result, it became possible to evacuate those Russian journalists who wanted to leave Tskhinval for Vladikavkaz. Civilians and wounded persons are currently being evacuated,”
Popov said.

He added that as agreed between the sides, there are two corridors: the one heading to the north for the evacuation of South Ossetians, and the one to the south for the evacuation of Georgian refugees.

MOSCOW – TBILISI. The Georgian Foreign Ministry notified the Russian Embassy in Tbilisi about a decision to stop hostilities in South Ossetia as of August 10, the Embassy’s press attaché Alexander Savinov told RIA Novosti over the telephone.

“The Embassy’s Minister-Counselor has just returned from the Georgian Foreign Ministry where he was handed a note saying that the president of Georgia has ordered a ceasefire to take effect starting with 5 a.m. on August 10, and that the Georgian Armed Forces are being withdrawn from the conflict zone,” Savinov said. He said the Embassy was now analysing this document.

VLADIKAVKAZ. The Russian Emergencies Ministry plans to send its rescue teams to Tskhinval in the near future. They will conduct clean-up operations and search for the victims of artillery bombardment,” Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Units of the 58th Russian Army have arrived to support peacekeepers in the conflict zone.

“We are planning to send search-and-rescue teams from the South Federal District to Tskhinval. They will clean up the rubble and render aid to conflict victims,”Shoigu told a meeting in Vladikavkaz on Sunday.

He said rescue teams from the Emergencies Ministry’s Central Regional Centre had also been sent to help their colleagues in the South Federal District. Shoigu did not say how many people were still staying in Tskhinval.

MOSCOW. Russian peacekeepers have established control over most of Tskhin val on the third day of fighting in South Ossetia. Georgia continues to withdraw its troops from the city and to fire at Russian-South Ossetian positions against the backdrop of Tbilisi’s statements regarding a ceasefire.

Kiev has joined the information war, surprising Russian diplomats and generals by its intention to prevent Black Sea Fleet warships, now deployed along Georgia’s sea borders, from returning to their home base in Sevastopol, the Crimea.

Russia is doing all it can to aid the South Ossetian population. North Ossetia has been receiving refugees for over two days. The agencies concerned are promising to evacuate all children from the self-proclaimed republic’s capital in the next 24 hours.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry is sending in convoys with humanitarian aid and is promising to deploy mobile hospitals in Tskhinval, where they are needed most of all.

“Russian peacekeepers now control most of the city, and the Georgian side has started withdrawing its units from Tskhinval,” Deputy General Staff Chief Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn told a RIA Novosti briefing.

About 7,400 Georgian soldiers supported by 100 tanks and artillery pieces are now involved in the fighting near Tskhinval, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force’s command told RIA Novosti over the telephone.

“The city is under fire; snipers are shooting intensively at various targets, including civilians,” the source said.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry claimed that President Mikheil Saakashvili had ordered a ceasefire to take effect at 5 a.m. on August 10.

MOSCOW. Russian warships patrolling the coast of the self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia were attacked by four Georgian motorboats and sank one of them, said the Russian Navy’s information and PR service.

A Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson said earlier on Sunday that Russian warships had been attacked by two guided-missile boats, and that they had sunk one of them.

“Four rapidly moving vessels were detected in the Russian ships’ patrol zone. They violated the security area and did not respond in any way. Russian warships fired warning shots and then laid down an artillery barrage. One target was destroyed, and the remaining three turned away and sailed in the direction of Poti,” the Russian Navy reported.