MOSCOW: President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to Russia s military offensive against Georgia saying it had been punished but could be hit again.
The aggressor has been punished and suffered significant losses, Medvedev told defense chiefs at a meeting on the South Ossetia conflict, which Russia says has left at least 2,000 civilians dead.
I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian authorities into peace.
Russian troops and tanks poured in to Georgia after the Georgian army launched an offensive last week to bring South Ossetia, the Russian-backed region which broke away in the early 1990s, back under government control.
The United Nations estimated that more than 100,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.
The purpose of the operation has been achieved…. The security of our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been restored, Medvedev added while insisting any new Georgian attacks would be liquidated.
A senior Russian military commander General Anatoly Nogovitsyn also said the halt in the Russian advance into Georgia would not stop reconnaissance and other operations.
Georgia, which had offered a ceasefire, said several Georgian villages were bombed after the announcement. Russia s military angrily denied the claim and said Georgian soldiers were still firing at its troops.
Russia s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the only way to end fighting in Georgia was with a total Georgian withdrawal from South Ossetia. He also said Saakashvili should leave office.
It would be best if he left, Lavrov told a news conference. I don t think Russia will feel like talking with Mr. Saakashvili after what he did to our citizens.
The Russian announcement was welcomed by the international community though the United States remained wary.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Moscow to press a peace plan and told Medvedev the ceasefire was good news but that it had to be implemented.
NATO ambassadors voiced serious concern at the Georgia conflict, with many saying it could not be business as usual with Russia, the US NATO ambassador, Kurt Volker, said.
But the US ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, called the ceasefire a positive development.
Now we have to see whether the Russians are not only stopping military operations but redeploying … and withdrawing the troops that have been brought into Georgia on August 6 and accept international monitoring of the ceasefire agreement.
US President George W. Bush, Georgia s main Western ally, on Monday issued his strongest condemnation yet of the Russian assault in Georgia. Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people, he said. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.
Before Medvedev s ceasefire, Russian forces had already struck new blows.
Warplanes bombed the key city of Gori, Georgia s security council said. The Russian air force also attacked the key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline near Rustavi, but it was not known if it was damaged, security council chairman Alexander Lomaia told AFP.
Saakashvili said Monday that the majority of Georgia s territory is occupied and that the Russian military threatened Tbilisi.
Before Medvedev s dramatic announcement, Russia had resisted international calls for a ceasefire.
Its forces moved briefly into the western city of Senaki on Monday and destroyed a military base, officials said. They also entered Georgia s main Black Sea port of Poti.
Abkhaz forces had surrounded Georgian troops in the Upper Kodori Gorge, a sliver of the breakaway region still held by Georgian forces, reports said quoting Abkhaz separatists. -AFP
