MOSCOW — Russia plowed closer to all-out war with Georgia today, sending warplanes to bomb deep inside the neighboring country and preparing to move more troops into the fray over a pro-Moscow separatist republic.
A Georgian minister says Georgian troops have pulled out of Tskhinvali, capital of the breakaway province of South Ossetia, under massive Russian shelling.
Georgia’s Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili said the troops left Tskhinvali today to change their location. Yakobashvili said Georgian troops remained in South Ossetia.
He says the pullout will help provide a humanitarian corridor to evacuate those wounded from Tskhinvali.
The city has been ravaged by fierce battles since Friday when Georgian troops launched an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia.
Moscow brushed aside calls from the Georgian government for a cease-fire, insisting that the troops’ mission was to restore calm to the breakaway republic, called South Ossetia.
“We are enforcing peace,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who reported that the death toll was at 1,500 and climbing. That figure could not be confirmed.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, meanwhile, declared a state of war, and Georgia’s parliament voted to impose martial law.
“We, on our own, cannot fight with Russia,” Saakashvili told the British Broadcasting Corp. “We want immediate cease-fire … and international mediation.”
Lavrov called the truce appeal a “cynical” move, given that the fighting began when Georgian forces launched a surprise attack on South Ossetia late last week.
The fighting threatens to inflame the volatile Caucasus region, which has emerged as a strategically crucial proving ground for Russia and the United States to vie for influence among former Soviet states. Tensions between Moscow and the West have sharpened in recent years, with an increasingly wealthy Russia striving to restore the superpower status it lost with the Soviet collapse.
As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rushed home from the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, President Bush called on Moscow to respect Georgia’s sovereign territory.
“Georgia is a sovereign nation, and its territorial integrity must be respected,” Bush said, in the latest sign that his administration is lining up behind Saakashvili’s pro-Western government in the worsening conflict. “We call for an end to the Russian bombings.
A senior U.S. official was even more blunt, saying that Russia was attacking Georgia with large strategic bombers and firing ballistic missiles into Georgian territory.
“I, for the life of me, can’t imagine how that could be a proportional response to allegations that Georgians had fired upon Russian peacekeepers,” the official said.
The official said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been in contact with her European counterparts Saturday and was contemplating sending an envoy to the region to help broker a cease-fire.
But the official said the U.S. was not currently considering any military aid to the Georgians. The U.S. has dispatched military trainers to Georgia to help modernize the Georgian armed forces, and just under 150 are believed to be in Georgian territory.
In Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian republic backed by Russia, fighters launched attacks on Georgian military positions. Like South Ossetia, Abkhazia won de facto autonomy in a bloody war with Georgia, and is now leaning on Russia in the hopes of winning independence. The outbreak of fighting in Abkhazia raised the threat of a broader war in the Caucasus.
In another move that a bigger, bloodier fight could be in store, Russia moved its Black Sea fleet closer to the Georgian coast Saturday, the Interfax news agency reported. Georgia has already called for a mass mobilization of all reservists, and called its 2,000 troops home from Iraq to join the fight.
After returning from Beijing, Putin installed himself in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, just over the border from South Ossetia. Once back on Russian turf, Putin was plainly at the helm of war planning — consulting with the military, denouncing Georgia and meeting with South Ossetian refugees.
The prime minister accused Georgia of “genocide” of South Ossetians and pledged Russian funds to rebuild the capital of the breakaway republic. He also hinted that Georgia no longer had the moral authority to assert territorial control over the rebel republic.
Ethnic tensions have brewed between Georgians and South Ossetians for generations. Critics say Moscow has stoked that animosity, especially in recent months, by supporting South Ossetia’s separatist fever and doling out Russian passports to residents of the breakaway republic.
The fighting erupted in earnest early Friday, when the Georgian military opened a surprise assault on South Ossetia, apparently in the hopes of startling the republic, quickly seizing control and bringing the rebel region back under the control of Georgia.
Russia, which has long maintained troops in both of Georgia’s breakaway republics, responded by sending its own soldiers pouring over the border into South Ossetia. The fighting quickly seemed to be focused between Georgia and Russia. Russian warplanes pounded Georgian military and industrial targets. Georgia shot down at least two Russian planes and attacked bases.
Bitterly blaming Georgian President Saakashvili for the bloodshed, Russia’s Lavrov also griped about countries that have backed Georgia — a thinly veiled swipe at the U.S.
“Those who have been supplying arms to Georgia, I believe they should feel part of the blame for the loss of life of civilians, including many Russian citizens and peacekeepers,” he said. “I think those who have been appeasing Mr. Saakashvili’s aggressive intentions and who helped create a feeling of impunity among the Georgian leadership should think twice.”
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