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Tbilisi: US President George W. Bush sought to contain the explosive conflict in Georgia on Sunday as the White House warned Russia that relations with the US were in jeopardy.
The violence in the breakaway province of South Ossetia appeared to ebb as Georgian troops began retreating and Russian troops appeared to be in control, though Russia disputed the claim of a cease-fire. US officials said Moscow was only broadening its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the region.
Georgia said on Sunday it had ordered its forces, pushed back by superior Russian firepower, to cease fighting in the breakaway province and offered Moscow talks to end the conflict.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded an "unconditional withdrawal" of Georgian forces in a telephone call with his Georgian counterpart, Russia's foreign ministry said.
Shortly after the statement was issued, bombs fell on the outskirts of the Georgian capital Tbilisi targeting a military air force facility located close to the international airport, witnesses reported. Moscow denied boombing the airport. A Russian official said more than 2,000 people had been killed in South Ossetia since Friday.
Moscow also moved its naval fleet from their base in Ukraine to positions near Georgia's coast, following which Ukraine threatened to prevent the warships from returning to their base in Sevastopol.
On the diplomatic front, the United Nations Security Council reconvened yesterday for consultations on the crisis after a meeting failed to agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire.
Timeline: South ossetia conflict
- November 1989: South Ossetia declares autonomy from the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, triggering three months of fighting.
- December 1990: Georgia and South Ossetia begin a new armed conflict which lasts until 1992.
- June 1992: Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian leaders meet in Sochi, sign an armistice and agree the creation of a tripartite peacekeeping force of 500 soldiers from each entity.
- November 1993: South Ossetia drafts its own constitution.
- November 1996: South Ossetia elects its first president.
- December 2001: South Ossetia elects Eduard Kokoity as president. In 2002 he asks Moscow to recognise the republic's independence and absorb it into Russia.
- January 2005: Russia gives guarded approval to Georgia's plan to grant broad autonomy to South Ossetia in exchange for dropping its bid for independence.
- November 2006: South Ossetia overwhelmingly endorses its split with Tbilisi in a referendum. Georgia's prime minister says this is part of a Russian campaign to stoke a war.
- April 2007: Georgia's parliament approves a law to create a temporary administration in South Ossetia, raising tension with Russia.
- June: South Ossetian separatists say Georgia attacked Tskhinvali with mortar and sniper fire. Tbilisi denies this.
- October: Talks hosted by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe between Georgia and South Ossetia break down.
- March 2008: South Ossetia asks the world to recognise its independence from Georgia following the West's support for Kosovo's secession from Serbia.
- March: Georgia's bid to join Nato, though unsuccessful, prompts Russia's parliament to urge the Kremlin to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
- April: South Ossetia rejects a Georgian power-sharing deal, insists on full independence.
- August: Georgian forces attack South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali to re-take the breakaway region. Russia says its troops were responding to the assault and Georgia's Saakashvili says the two countries were at war.
Georgian forces pull out after three days of fighting. Russia says its troops control most of Tskhinvali.
Russia bombs a military airfield outside Tbilisi.
Russia says that the death toll in fighting stands at 2,000. Georgia said on Friday that it had lost up to 300 people killed, mainly civilians.
- Reuters
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