Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin yesterday accused the US of trying to disrupt the Russian military operation in South Ossetia by transporting Georgian troops from Iraq into the ‘conflict zone’.
Directly referring to the US flights of Georgian troops, Putin said: ‘I regret that some of our partners are not helping us but in fact are trying to impede us.
‘It seems that this will not change anything, but will move us away from resolving the situation.’
He added: ‘The very scale of this cynicism is astonishing – the attempt to turn white into black, black into white and to adeptly portray victims of aggression as aggressors and place the responsibility for the consequences of the aggression on the victims.’
Georgia’s foreign ministry accused Russia of staging new air attacks.
Russian deputy General Staff commander Anatoly Nogovitsyn told a press conference: ‘Total personnel losses on Georgian territory consist of 18 deaths including one officer and 17 sergeants and soldiers. Fifty-two people were injured.
‘Aviation losses consisted of four planes.’
Georgian forces pounded the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, with artillery fire during the night and residents said there had been ‘many deaths.’
A local cleric in Tskhinvali, Bishop Georgy Pukhati, said: ‘The situation is very tense here. This is a humanitarian catastrophe. There is no water and the city’s entire infrastructure is destroyed.’
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he had signed an EU ceasefire plan for South Ossetia.
The exact details of the document, drafted by visiting French and Finnish foreign ministers Kouchner and Stubb, are currently unavailable.
Russia has not signed the EU document.
‘According to information from peacekeepers in South Ossetia, Georgia continues to use military force and in this regard we cannot consider this document,’ a Kremlin spokesman told reporters.
Russia, which has already moved battleships to the Black Sea and says it has sunk a Georgian navy vessel, is preparing to deploy 9,000 troops to bolster its forces inside a second separatist Georgian region, Abkhazia, a military spokesman was quoted as saying by Interfax.
It will send more than 350 armoured vehicles to add to what is officially a Russian peacekeeping force in the breakaway region, the spokesman added.
l Crude oil prices began rising agin yesterday, nearing $117 a barrel, after oil exports normally carried out via Georgian ports were halted over the weekend owing to the escalation in fighting between Georgia and Russia.
In New York, light sweet crude for September delivery gained $1.50 to $116.70 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for September delivery rose $1.79 to $115.12 per barrel.
