TBILISI, Georgia — Russia expanded its bombing blitz to the Georgian capital, deployed ships off the coast and, a Georgian official said, sent tanks from the separatist region of South Ossetia into Georgian territory, heading toward a border city before being turned back today.
Russia also claimed its forces sank a Georgian missile boat that was trying to attack Russian ships in the Black Sea, news agencies reported.
Russia’s military actions in Georgia “must not go unanswered,” Vice President Dick Cheney said today in a telephone conversation with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, according to his spokeswoman.
“The vice president expressed the United States’ solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Cheney’s press secretary, Lee Ann McBride, said.
Cheney told Saakashvili “Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community,” McBride said.
U.S.-allied Georgia called a unilateral cease-fire — “We are not crazy,” said President Mikhail Saakashvili — and claimed its troops were retreating today from the disputed province of South Ossetia in the face of Russia’s far superior firepower. Russia said the soldiers were “not withdrawing but regrouping” and refused to recognize a truce.
If the boat sinking is confirmed, it could mark a serious escalation of the fighting that has raged between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia.
International envoys headed in to try to end the fighting between Russia and its small U.S.-allied neighbor that erupted last week in the Russian-backed separatist region.
Saakashvili said one of the Russian raids on the airport came a half hour before the arrival of the foreign ministers of France and Finland — in the country to try to mediate. He insisted his troops had withdrawn.
“But we are not crazy,” he told CNN’s “Late Edition.” He said Russia had entered his country with a force bigger than “the tank force that went into Afghanistan in 1979 or Czechoslovakia in 1968.”
“We have no interest whatsoever in pursuing hostilities,” he said.
Russia also insisted it was pursuing peace.
Russia will only act in “self-defense,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said at a U.N. Security Council meeting.
“Let’s state clearly that we are ready to put an end to the war, that we will withdraw from South Ossetia, that we will sign an agreement on non-use of force,” Churkin proposed.
But Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Temur Yakobashvili said Russian tanks tried to cross from South Ossetia into the territory of Georgia proper, but were turned back by Georgian forces. He said the tanks apparently were trying to approach Gori, but did not fire on the city of about 50,000.
Russia also sent naval vessels to patrol off Georgia’s Black Sea coast, but denied today that the move was aimed at establishing a blockade.
The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman as saying that Georgian missile boats twice tried to attack Russian ships, which fired back and sank one of the Georgian vessels.
Saakashvili ordered a unilateral cease-fire, the Foreign Ministry said, and the country’s security council head said troops had left South Ossetia. Russia, however, insisted Georgian soldiers remained around the regional capital, Tskhinvali, where the fighting has been the most brutal. Tskhinvali is located close to the border between the breakaway region and the rest of Georgia.
The scope of Russia’s military response has the Bush administration deeply worried.
“We have made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations,” U.S. deputy national security adviser Jim Jeffrey told reporters.
Georgia, whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, began an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes that pounded Tskhinvali.
In response, Russia launched overwhelming artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops. Today, Russian jets targeted an aircraft-making plant near the airport on the outskirts of Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic.
Thousands of civilians have fled South Ossetia — many seeking shelter in the Russian province of North Ossetia.
“The Georgians burned all of our homes,” said one elderly woman, as she sat on a bench under a tree with three other white-haired survivors of the fighting.
She seemed confused by the conflict. “The Georgians say it is their land,” she said. “Where is our land, then? We don’t know.”
The U.S. military began flying 2,000 Georgian troops home from Iraq after Georgia recalled them, even while calling for a truce.
President Bush has called for an end to the Russian bombings and an immediate halt to the fighting, accusing Russia of using the issue to bomb other regions in Georgia.
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