Two Russian Planes Downed, Georgian Parliament Approves State of War

Reuters
August 9, 2008

Putin said more than 30,000 refugees from South Ossetia had fled over the border in the past 36 hours. Russian officials said two of Moscow's warplanes had been shot down, 13 soldiers killed and 70 wounded.

Abkhazia, another pro-Russian enclave on Georgia's Black Sea coast which, like South Ossetia, has rejected Tbilisi's rule for many years, said its forces had begun an operation to drive out Georgian forces, possibly opening a second front.

Russian jets carried out up to five raids on mostly military targets around the Georgian town of Gori, close to the conflict zone in South Ossetia, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. At least one bomb hit an apartment block, killing five people.

A woman knelt in the street and screamed over the body of a dead man as the bombed apartment block burned nearby. Another old woman covered in blood stared into the distance and a man knelt by the road, his head in his hands.

"The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis," Bush said at the Olympics in Beijing.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Bush by phone the only solution was for Georgian troops to quit the conflict zone.

"We have not received through any channels any appeal from the Georgian leadership to the president of Russia," a Kremlin official said.

STATE OF WAR
Georgia's parliament approved a state of war across the country for the next 15 days, while Russia accused the West of contributing to the violence by supplying Georgia with arms.
Russian accused Ukraine -- like Georgia a former Soviet republic now seeking NATO and EU membership -- of encouraging Tbilisi to carry out "ethnic cleansing" in South Ossetia.
Russia, which sent in tanks to back the South Ossetians, said its forces had "liberated" the enclave's capital, but Georgia said Tskhinvali was under its complete control.

The city could be seen shrouded in valley mist from the higher-up village of Tirdznisi, in the Georgian-controlled part of South Ossetia around 10 km (six miles) away.

"The town is destroyed. There are many casualties, many wounded," Russian journalist Zaid Tsarnayev told Reuters from Tskhinvali.

In Tbilisi, people were nervous but defiant. Most supported Saakashvili but had been shocked by the Russian reaction.

"To fight Russia is crazy," said music studio owner Giga Kvenetadze, 30. "But I do support Saakashvili ... And what Russia is doing is wrong. They must stop."

Georgia was planning to bring its Iraq contingent of 2,000 soldiers home as soon as possible.
In New York, Belgium's U.N. ambassador was trying to get Security Council agreement on how to call for a halt to hostilities, diplomats said.

European countries once in the Soviet sphere condemned Russia in language that also harked back to the Cold War.

"The European Union and NATO must take up the initiative and oppose the spread of imperialist and revisionist policy in the east of Europe," the presidents of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia said in a joint statement

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