Breaking News
4:52pm UK, Friday August 08, 2008
[Editor's Note: This is a Sky News story.]
Russian tanks have rolled into Georgian territory as fears grow that all-out war will erupt over the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Georgian troops fire rocket missiles at separatists in South Ossetia.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said Russian forces were in control of part of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, while Georgia claims it has shot down five Russian warplanes.
The UN Security Council is due to discuss the crisis later.
US President George Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, discussed the issue in Beijing, where they are at the Olympic opening ceremony.
The US State Department called for calm and is sending an envoy to South Ossetia to join international mediation efforts.
Georgia has appealed to international leaders to stop Russian intervention in what began as a conflict between the former Soviet state and South Ossetian separatists.
Russia reported earlier that Georgian artillery shells killed more than 10 Russian peacekeepers, while Georgia accused Russian jets of injuring seven people in a bombing raid.
The UN had earlier failed to reach an agreement on a Russia-drafted statement that would have called on Georgia and separatists region to halt all bloodshed.
South Ossetia and a second rebel Georgian region, Abkhazia – both of which unilaterally broke away from Georgia at the beginning of the 1990s – enjoy Russian political and financial backing.
Speaking from Moscow, Sunday Times correspondent Mark Franchetti said Russia claims it now has no choice but to protect its peacekeepers and Russian citizens in the Georgian province.
Putin: We Will Respond
[Please follow either the link at the beginning or the link at the bottom which says, 'Sky.com News' to view video.]
He said tensions between the Georgians and the Russian-backed South Ossetians had been rising for months.
The presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili – who is viewed in Russia as a stooge of the West – has been a major bone of contention.
“(The Russians) oppose his plans for Georgia to join Nato because they feel the Americans and Nato are encircling Russia,” Mr Franchetti said.
Read Sky’s Alex Rossi’s Q&A on the conflict
A spokesman for the separatists said in Moscow that the offensive had caused “deaths and many wounded”.
Skirmishes since last weekend have deepened fears of full-blown conflict in the Caucasus, which is emerging as a vital energy transit route and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.
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Think who needs Russian gas and oil? Who is affraid of being weak if China joins Russia. Who says we are democratic and bomb other countries?! We have never pretended to be democratic, and have never started bombing Georgia!!! Come and SEE FOR YOUSELVES!!! SHAME ON YOU, MASS MEDIA!!!