Putin sends US a bullish message

Georgia sued for peace with Russia yesterday but Moscow showed little sign of ending its military campaign over South Ossetia despite international condemnation of its actions.

President Saakashvili appealed for international support as he ordered troops to pull out of the region, called an immediate ceasefire and urged Russia to begin talks to end hostilities.

In a televised address to the nation last night, the besieged leader said that the “existence of the Georgian state is under threat”.

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Russia continued its offensive in a day of intensifying military action, while Georgia faced the threat of a second front opening up in its other breakaway region of Abkhazia.

President Medvedev, in Moscow, accused the Georgian leadership of genocide as Russian troops and tanks seized full control of the region. There was panic in the central Georgian city of Gori, 17 miles (27km) from the border, last night as thousands of people fled, convinced that a Russian invasion was imminent.

Russian planes bombed the base of a special forces battalion and an air traffic control centre in the suburbs of the Georgian capital Tbilisi early this morning, Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

The explosions could be heard from the centre of the city. Mr Utiashvili added that a "massive" aerial bombardment of Gori was taking place.

"Gori is being bombed massively from the air and from artillery as well," said Mr Utiashvili, who added that Tbilisi had reports that Russian troops and tanks were preparing a ground attack.

Earlier, Russian aircraft twice bombed a military airfield eight miles from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, even after Mr Saakashvili made his offer of a ceasefire. One Russian bomb exploded near the capital’s civilian airport hours before Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, arrived on an EU peace mission. After talks with Georgian leaders, Mr Kouchner will head for Moscow today.

America, which trains the Georgian Army, expressed solidarity with Georgia over the weekend. President Bush said today he had expressed grave concern to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about what he called Russia's "disproportionate response" against Georgia in the conflict. In an interview with NBC Sports, Mr Bush said that in a discussion with Mr Putin at the Olympics on Friday he had told the Russian leader "This violence is unacceptable".

"I was very firm with Vladimir Putin," Mr Bush said. He said he made similar comments in a phone call with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Vice President Dick Cheney also expressed his support to Mr Saakashvili, telling him in a phone call on Sunday "Russian aggression must not go unanswered," the vice president's office said.

"The vice president expressed the United States' solidarity with the Georgian people," Mr Cheney's office said in a statement. It said Cheney, in a phone call on Sunday, told Saakashvili that "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."

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy to the United Nations, accused Russia of targeting civilians and waging a campaign of terror. His Russian counterpart, Vitali Churkin, said: “This is completely unacceptable, especially from the lips of a representative of a country whose actions we are aware of in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia.”

The US threatened last night to force a vote at the UN on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Georgia despite the threat of a Russia veto. “The world needs to know that everyone is united. Russia is on the wrong side,” Mr Khalilzad said.

Russia, a veto-bearing permanent member of the 15-nation council, said that a ceasefire call was not enough and demanded that Georgia pledge to renounce the use of force.

Meanwhile, Georgia claimed that Russia had opened a second front in its military offensive in Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast.

Moscow denied involvement, but Sergei Bagapsh, the Abkhaz President, said that he had sent 1,000 troops to force Georgian soldiers out of the Kodori Gorge, the only remaining part of the region not under separatist control. Russian television, however, reported that Russian troops were in Abkhazia and moving towards territory under Georgian control.

Georgia accused Moscow of landing 4,000 troops in Abkhazia by ship after Russia sent its navy to the Black Sea coast. The ships later docked at a Russian port, though only after Ukraine gave warning that it would bar any vessels engaged in action against Georgia from returning to the Black Sea Fleet’s home in Sevastopol.

Russian jets bombed Gori, the Black Sea port of Poti and the airfield near Tbilisi, all outside the conflict zone in South Ossetia. Last night Georgian officials said that Russian forces were preparing for a full-scale assault on Gori. Russia claimed that it had sunk a Georgian cruiser in the Black Sea.

Mr Saakashvili said that Russia planned to take over the whole of Georgia because it wanted “control over energy routes from Central Asia and the Caspian Sea”.

The West regards Georgia as a vital conduit for supplies of energy from Central Asia through pipelines that bypass Russia. The governments of Britain, the US, Germany, Italy, Poland and Canada have advised their citizens living in Georgia to seek safety in Armenia.

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