08.08.2008 Georgia. In this image, made from television screen, what Russian First Channel claims - are burning Georgian armored vehicles are seen in Tskhinvali in the South Ossetian breakaway region of Georgia. Georgia launched a massive attack Friday to regain control over South Ossetia, using heavy artillery, aircraft and armor. South Ossetian officials said at least 15 people were killed Friday and an unspecified number were wounded.
Russian First Channel
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The First Peace-Keeping War
// Russia and Georgia battle for South Ossetia
Thursday night, a war started in South Ossetia. Tskhinvali, the capital, was bombed by the Georgian Air Force during almost the entire day. By the midday, as Tskhinvali had been destroyed completely, Russia’s troops entered the breakaway republic. According to the information of the South Ossetia’s authorities, thousands of people were killed during the hostilities.
War for peace
The day before there was no sign telling you that the war was imminent. After skirmishes, which lasted during the entire week, Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili called on the South Ossetian party to cease to fire and start talks about defining South Ossetia’s autonomous status. Mr Saakashvili, who made a TV address, stated that the negotiations would begin on Friday and that starting from 6 p.m. Thursday the Georgian party announced truce. However, after it firing continued, becoming even more intense, witnesses reported. South Ossetia’s Information and Press Committee spokesperson told Kommersant that the Georgian party was the first to open fire.
“Our President announced truce on Thursday evening,” head of analytical department with Georgia’s Interior Ministry Shota Utiashvili told Kommersant in his turn. “Only we wanted a truce. All evening long South Ossetia’s units fired at two our villages – Avnevi and Tamarasheni. The settlements got seriously damaged. It got obvious that Kokoity’s units wouldn’t stop the firing and we lost many people – 10 people were killed, and 50 got wounded. We couldn’t help responding. We were to start the operation to defend our citizens. In fact they had been provoking us the whole week long. Since August 2, as our police car was blown up and massive firing began, they have been making us to launch the special operation.”
Several minutes before the Georgian party started its operation, Marat Kulakhmetov, the Commander of the Combined Peacekeeping Forces in South Ossetia, spoke with Tbilisi by the phone. The General was told about the cancellation of the truce. At 10 p.m. Georgia’s units moved to the southern villages of the breakaway republic – the artillery at the Gori military base opened fire to cover them. At the same time General Kulakhmetov summoned a briefing in Tskhinvali, where he told the journalists that “the Georgian party has virtually declared war on South Ossetia.”
All night long there were bitter clashes on the outskirts of Tskhinvali. At 1 p.m. head of South Ossetia’s Information and Press Committee Irina Gagloeva told Kommersant, “The walls and window glasses are shaking, the buildings in the city’s center are on fire, the people hide in their cellars. The Georgian artillery has been firing at Tskhinvali massively. The majority of the shells explode in the center of the city.”
The officers at the peace-keeping headquarters could only compare it with the storm of Grozny. “Georgia’s troops have seized the heights round the city,” they told us at the headquarters. “Then, breaking through the city’s defense line, armored groups entered Tskhinvali, they were fired at – and a few machines were set on fire.” According to the information of the South Ossetian party, at that night some 30 Georgian armored machines were destroyed. Ossetians lost several tanks and IFVs (infantry fighting vehicles). Witnesses say, the crews of some armored machines that were caught on fire left them and went to the city to defend their houses. So, the Georgians set empty vehicles on fire.
Late at night President of the breakaway republic Eduard Kokoity, in a camouflage jacket and with a gun, told journalists that South Ossetia had started war against Georgia. However, he appeared resolute and even enthusiastic. “We’ll defend Tskhinvali, and then we’ll launch an attack.”
Trying to hide from Russian and Georgian bombs
In the morning the Georgian Interior Ministry issued a press-release reading that the villages of Mugut, Didmukha and Dmenissi as well as the outskirts of Tskhinvali were “under control of the government forces.” All this time long the firing wouldn’t stop. One of the Tskhinvali dwellers Katya Khubulova told us when she finally managed to get through, “We’re all in cellars, we can’t even stick the nose out. It feels all kinds of weapons are firing. I’m here with my friend. He’s got a walkietalkie. He learnt the hospital is destroyed, and the doctors are hiding at the basement. It means there’s no place where those wounded could get medical aid. They say there are a lot of corpses in the streets.” “There are a lot of children left in the city,” another South Ossetian Elina Bestayeva, who was in Moscow yesterday, told Kommersant. “They said almost all children were evacuated to Vladikavkaz, but it turned out they didn’t manage to do it – the roads were fired at, and it was too dangerous to take the children out of the city. My brother has children, who have to hide in the cellars now. We can’t get through, and we know nothing about them.”
Telephone connection with South Ossetia was lost in the midday. The Ossetian party explained it with the attacks of the Georgian Air Force, which destroyed the transponders. The Georgian government asserted that it applied aircraft after Russia’s bombers appeared in the Georgian sky. “At 11 a.m. three Russian Sukhoi Su-27 jets appeared in the sky over Georgia,” Shota Utiashvili told Kommersant. “First they flew in the direction of the Kareli settlement and bombed a police station there. Then they circled round Gori, dropped a bomb on the telephone tower and flew away. Then they returned and fired at Gori. They bombed the market – and there are a lot of injured people there. After it the jets approached Tbilisi – dropped bombs on Vaziani military airport.” A source with Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed to Kommersant that Russian planes took part in the bombing, but he emphasized that “the jets covered military facilities only: the Gori military base, Vaziani and Marneuli airports, where Sukhoi Su-25 and Aero L-39 Albatros planes as well as the radar system are located.” Answering a question of Kommersant what was the reason for the Russian Forces’ carrying out the operation before Russia officially announced it supported South Ossetia, the officer replied, “It was the command’s order.”
The meeting of the presidents
Nevertheless, Georgia’s Air Force worked no less intensive. It was the air cover that allowed Georgia’s units to occupy practically the entire Tskhinvali by 3 p.m., which the Georgian Interior Ministry reported. According to Shota Utiashvili, “at 3 p.m. the Georgian forces controlled South Ossetia’s major part.”
At the same time in Java, South Ossetia’s leader Eduard Kokoity met with North Ossetia’s President Taimuraz Mamsurov, who arrived in the conflict zone to demonstrate his eagerness to help South Ossetia by all possible means. A thousand volunteers from North Ossetia arrived with Mr Mamsurov. One of the groups was attacked as it crossed a bridge – several people were killed, and the bridge was partly destroyed.
The volunteers, artillery and military machines were deployed in Java, which turned into a fortified town within hours. It was the place the South Ossetian government was to be evacuated to in case Tskhinvali was seized by the Georgian troops. They have no chance to occupy Java – even Georgians themselves acknowledged it. “We do not aim to conquer South Ossetia,” a Georgian diplomat told Kommersant. “Even seizing Tskhinvali, we’re not going to stay there long. It’s a political step, rather than a military one. We want to show that we won’t put up with the killing of our citizens.”
Russian tanks’ ultimatum
At 4 p.m. Russia’s tanks entered South Ossetia. Officially, their presence in the conflict zone was explained as “helping Russia’s peace-keeping forces, which have lost many people.”
“From this time on everything will depend on the behaviour of Russia’s tanks,” Shota Utiashvili told Kommersant. “Back at 11 a.m., as Russia’s bombers appeared in the Georgian sky, it was evident that Russia won’t stay away from the conflict. However, the peacekeepers behaved in quite a worthy manner and didn’t interfere in the clashes. There was hope that Russia won’t use its forces. But we were wrong.”
The Georgian government’s reaction to the news about the Russian tanks was very emotional: Georgia’s Security Council stated that it marked the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia. President Saakashvili said in his interview with CNN that it was no war yet, “Georgia only defended itself from the Russian aggression.”
The 58th Army of Russia moved in the direction of South Ossetia as President Dmitry Medvedev made his address, which was broadcast by all Russian TV channels.
When Russia’s troops got deployed in Tskhinvali, Georgia announced a moratorium, and opened corridors for the civilian population. These corridors, however, led in the Gori direction only, so, there was no one willing to use them. The Georgian military used the pause – and began retreating. At 5 p.m. as Russia’s tanks started with firing at Georgia’s fortifications, it was announced that the Georgian troops were leaving the city. In the evening President Kokoity returned from Java. He gave an ultimatum: The Georgians must get out of the city, otherwise they’ll be annihilated.
At 7 p.m. Kommersant managed to speak over the phone with Russia’s member of command Vladimir Ivanov. “We have regained control over Tskhinvali,” he said. “Now we’re trying to calculate the number of those killed and wounded. The joint forces suffered considerable losses – 10 killed and 30 wounded men. The Russian peace-keeping battalion was fired at. We didn’t open fire. So, it was targeted firing aimed against Russia’s peace-keepers.”
According to the data the South Ossetian government has, several thousand people died in Tskhinvali yesterday.
At night silence reigned in Tskhinvali. You could only see the reminders of the recent war – the ruins in the city center and the houses on fire.
Olga Allenova
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 09, 2008
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