Video: Russia and Georgia 'on brink of war'

Georgia claimed today to have downed two Russian warplanes over its territory after the former Soviet neighbours came into direct conflict over the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Tbilisi mobilised its army reserves and launched a major military offensive overnight to regain control over the province, raising fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia.

Moscow backs the separatists, most of whom are Russian citizens, and has its own "peackeepers" in South Ossetia.

Fighting raged around the city of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, as Georgian troops backed by tanks and warplanes pounded separatist forces today. At least 15 people were reported to have been killed although the death toll was expected to rise.

Georgian officials said this afternoon that a three-hour ceasefire had been declared to allow civilians to leave Tskhinvali and an amnesty had been offered to the separatists.

But shortly afterwards, President Saakashvili announced the downing of the two warplanes, suggesting that the conflict had moved into a much more dangerous phase. The Georgian interior ministry had earlier accused Russian of launching a bombing raid injuring seven people.

A column of Russian tanks, trucks and troops was on its way through the neighbouring Russian province of North Ossetia towards South Ossetia, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

A senior Georgian security official said that heavy military equipment and armoured vehicles were entering South Ossetia through the Roki tunnel from Russia.

Mr Saakashvili, who has aligned his country more closely with the West and wants it to join Nato, told a news briefing in Tiblisi: "One hundred and fifty Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles have entered South Ossetia. This is a clear intrusion on another country’s territory. We have Russian tanks on our territory, jets on our territory in broad daylight."

He added: "I must also tell you that Georgian forces have downed two Russian jet fighters over Georgia’s territory."

The flare-up presents Dmitri Medvedev, the new Russian President, with the first major crisis. Chairing a meeting of his security council in the Kremlin, he vowed that Moscow would protect its citizens.

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