Tbilisi / 11 Aug.'08 / 14:0618
Russian servicemen were killed and four military aircraft downed during the clashes with the Georgian forces in the South Ossetian conflict zone, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The Georgian side claims to have downed 12 Russian jets.
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Russian Forces in Zugdidi
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 11 Aug.'08 / 17:29
Russian forces are in control of Zugdidi, a town on the Georgian side ofthe Abkhaz ceasefire line, the Georgian authorities said.
“The so called Russian peacekeeping forces [stationed in the conflictzone], as well as Russia’s regular army units entered into Zugdidi and they now control the local police headquarters,” Shota Utiashvili, aspokesman of the Georgian Interior Ministry, said at 5pm local time onAugust 11.He also said that in parallel the Abkhaz militias took control overKhurcha, the Georgian-administered village at the administrative borderwith Abkhazia.
“Russians are now patrolling Zugdidi,” Utiashvili said. “There were noclashes there [in Zugdidi].”President Saakashvili said while speaking at a news conference inTbilisi at 5:15pm local time that the Russian troops “invaded” Zugdidi.
Zugdidi is within the 12-km security zone – a buffer zone between theGeorgian and Abkhaz sides – which is monitored by the Russianpeacekeeping troops stationed there under the CIS aegis.
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Georgia Claims Shooting Down Russian Jet
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 11 Aug.'08 / 17:47
Georgian said its air defense system shot down one Russian aircraftafter it flew over Gori at the time when President Saakashvili wasvisiting Gori accompanying the Finnish and French Foreign Ministers.President Saakashvili’s security guard had to drive him away from Goriimmediately after they heard a fighter jet overflying the town, whichwas bombed by the Russian aircraft for several times in recent days.
CNN and BBC World aired footage showing President Saakashvili in abulletproof jacket suddenly looking up into the sky; his bodyguards grabhim and put him down on the ground and shielding him with their bodiesand additional bulletproofs. Seconds later the president’s securityguard escorted him to a standing vehicle and drove away.Shota Utiashvili, the Georgian Interior Ministry’s spokesman, said thattwo aircrafts flew over Gori and one of them was shot down bringingtotal number of Russian warplanes and helicopters downed by the Georgianforces to 19.Russian Defense Ministry said four of its warplanes were shot down.
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Russian Forces Advance Deep into Georgia to Senaki
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 11 Aug.'08 / 19:09
Russia forces advanced from Abkhazia deep into Georgian territory in thedirection of Senaki, a town in western Georgia and the host to a major military base.
An eyewitness told Civil.Ge he had seen a Russian military convoy ofabout 100 armored vehicles of various types passing the town of Khobi,close to Senaki.
“The armored vehicles did not have the identification logo of thepeacekeeping forces,” he said by phone. “Combat helicopters were flyingover the convoy. I saw UNOMIG, as well as Georgian police vehiclesaccompanying the convoy.”Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported a Georgian MoD official assaying that the Russian forces were in control of the Senaki military base.No clashes were reported.
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Saakashvili’s Address to Nation
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 11 Aug.'08 / 20:20
President Saakashvili said in his live televised address to the nationthis evening: “Our future and liberty is under attack… This is war andwe have losses, but the enemy has even more serous losses… We willdefend our freedom, our homeland to the last drop of blood.”
Below is the transcript of the Saakashvili’s address:
Dear compatriots! In this very important, decisive and difficult period for our country, I want to describe the current situation and tell youabout the ways of helping the country out of this situation.First of all, I want to tell you that what is happening now againstGeorgia is obviously a military intervention planned months or yearsago, which aims, at least, to occupy or annex South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and as a final result, to occupy entire Georgia.
That intervention force, which entered Georgia, is very big, veryserious and of course, it contains a fatal threat to the Georgianstatehood. Today the freedom and future of each of us is under a hugeblow. An attempt of repeated occupation and enslaving of Georgia,depriving our country of its independence is underway. No doubt that itis real, against the background of latest statements. If previously theysaid that they responded to the operation launched by us in SouthOssetia – and you know that we have not launched anything until the lastminute – yesterday and the day before yesterday official statements weremade that the operation aimed at changing the Georgian authorities,changing Georgia’s course. It is translated from their language as theend to Georgia’s independence. Attacks are carried out against theKodori gorge in Upper Abkhazia, attacks are carried in the direction ofAbkhazia and Samegrelo. Yesterday there was an attempt to occupy Gori,which was repelled by our armed forces. I want to say that our armedforces are fighting very well. Their moral is increasing. Of course, Iregret greatly and this is the war. Of course, we have casualties, butour enemies have much more casualties. I declare about it basing ontheir sources. But this is a very serious test and in reality thesuccess of our forces is based on their unimaginable heroism.
Our enemies did not expect – and they themselves said about it in theofficial statement that they came across the resistance of the Georgianarmed forces which was 12 fold more than they imagined.But I want to say with full responsibility that we want to immediatelyend this military confrontation, we want to end the war, which we havenot launched, we want to stop Russia’s intervention. We are ready and Ihave confirmed my support to the plan of French President Sarkozy andForeign Minister Kouchner. Kouchner was here; President Sarkozy willarrive tomorrow. We are ready to immediately sign the agreement onceasefire and non-resumption of confrontation.We are expecting the visits of several European leaders, tomorrow, as Ialready said, President Sarkozy will arrive. Many European ministers arepresently visiting Georgia. Today a great amount of humanitarian aidwill start arriving from the entire world. The first planes from Francewill land within two hours and others will arrive afterwards, includingfrom Turkey, Ukraine, Germany, Denmark, other European states.
I want to tell to those people, who have left the conflict zone – wewill return you all back and until this conflict is over, I gave thestrictest instructions, not to leave even one person without attention.I want to say that of course, there was a chaos within first hours, wewere not preparing for it and they attacked us treacherously. If youremember, I was constantly increasing the military budget and many usedto say, why he is doing that - just for this occasion, for thisunfortunate day. We failed to increase it as much as I wanted.
It is not worth saying but if we had not lost time on innerconfrontation last autumn, we would have been much better prepared. Buttoday we are well-prepared and we have a motivation to defend ourcountry respectively, to save the independence and statehood of ourcountry, to save the future of each of us, to give a proper response toour enemies.I want to say with full responsibility, we should save our countryourselves. Nobody else will be able to do it. Of course, internationalsupport is important, international diplomatic involvement is decisive,but if we are not very mobilized, if we do not show heroism, if we donot resist this huge brutal force, without our dedication Georgia willnot be able to stop this confrontation.
All what is happening now – bombings, especially those of civilianfacilities, at nights, shelling - has the only objective, to demoralizeour society, to seed panic in the society. I want to thank everybody,those tens of thousands of Tbilisites, who came out in the streets lastnight and expressed their huge support towards the Georgian statehood. Iwant to thank those people – I traveled from the east to the west andbackwards – although Russian aircrafts were flying above us and althoughthe highway was shelled during our movement, I saw Georgian nationalflags flying on the cars and I saw Georgian flags flying on thebalconies - this is our response, our unity, our bravery, our endurance,and we will certainly liberate entire Georgia. This is what is happeningnow, this is Georgia’s struggle for national liberation, this is aresponse to the war imposed on Georgia, a response by the Georgiansociety’s resistance, the Georgian society’s heroism in order tomaintain liberty, statehood, and future of our children. The officialsof foreign countries should never define the future of our children. Thefuture of our children and our country should be ruled by the democraticgovernment elected by the Georgian society, which will act in the interests of the people, in the interests of multi-ethnic society, andwill never dance under other’s pipe and time will never come, when wecleaned the shoes of foreign officials. We helped Georgia up from itsknees within past years.
We should not allow anybody to make us kneeagain. Georgia should find its way out of this situation. Georgia shouldmanage to restore peace and to establish good relations, including with Russians, which attacked us.I also want to address the Russian society – of course, all mediaoutlets are blocked now, but information is leaking – we do not fightwith the Russian people. We are not angry with the Russian society. Muchinjustice has been carried out against Georgia, against each Georgian.But time will come - I am sure - when we will have very good relationsagain. But we will defend the freedom of our country, the independenceof our country – with our teeth, to the last drop of blood. God blesseach of us. God bless freedom of Georgia. God bless our soldiers, ourheroes. Long live Georgia.
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