Georgia launched a pre-emptive strike yesterday on a European Union report that is expected to criticise its role in last year’s war with Russia over South Ossetia.

Denying that a dozen Russian peacekeeping troops were killed in South Ossetia during an assault by Georgian forces, the Government in Tbilisi released evidence submitted to the EU commission investigating the war’s causes in order to get its side of the story heard first. It accused the Kremlin of spreading “patently false information about fictitious attacks on Russian peacekeepers”.

The Georgian documents continue: “These lies, spread by the Russian-backed propaganda efforts, were used by Russia to legitimise its military aggression against the rest of Georgia’s territory.”

The nine-month inquiry, led by the Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, is expected to blame both Georgia and Russia for the fighting over the breakaway region in August last year. The report is due to be published today.

According to a Georgian official briefed on its findings, the report has established that the Kremlin sent combat troops into the breakaway region of South Ossetia before fighting broke out. Georgia says it also rejects Russian claims that Georgia’s military committed genocide against civilians in South Ossetia. Instead, it found evidence that Russian soldiers were responsible for ethnic cleansing of Georgian villages in the region, the Georgian official claimed.

The official told The Times that the EU’s inquiry had also failed to confirm that Georgian troops attacked and killed Russian peacekeeping soldiers in South Ossetia. The Kremlin asserted the right to defend its peacekeepers as a key justification for sending its army into South Ossetia. Russia kept peacekeepers in the region after it first broke from Georgia after a war in 1992.

Temuri Yakobashvili, Georgia’s Reintegration Minister, said: “I don’t know if the Russians have proved that peacekeepers were killed by Georgians. I doubt it. We were shooting at military targets that were shooting at us. We were not targeting deliberately Russian peacekeepers.”

Reports have suggested that the EU inquiry will blame President Saakashvili of Georgia for triggering the war by ordering troops into South Ossetia on August 7. But it is also expected to accuse Moscow of mounting a long campaign to encourage separatists, particularly through the distribution of Russian passports to people in South Ossetia.

Russia forced the Georgians to retreat from South Ossetia then occupied large areas of the country. Tanks and troops came within 25 miles of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi before they were withdrawn in a ceasefire deal brokered by France.

President Medvedev recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia’s other breakaway region, immediately after the conflict. Russia now has almost 8,000 troops stationed in the two territories.

Tbilisi’s submission to the EU accused Russia of preparing a “full-scale war against Georgia” for months before the conflict began. However, it also acknowledged that Mr Saakashvili ordered troops into the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, after a day of escalating confrontation with separatists.

“Georgian military efforts were directed towards previously identified military targets, located in the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali region,” the documents stated.

“In line with Georgia’s defensive objectives, artillery fire was also directed at a Russian tank convoy that was moving towards the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali conflict zone. Similarly, military aviation bombed the Gupta Bridge with the aim of stopping Russian tanks that were moving towards South Ossetia/Tskhinvali region.”

Mr Yakobashvili said that the EU report could not blame Georgia for the war, adding: “How can Georgia start a war in our own territory when we are fighting Russians in our territory? The war did not start on August 7. There was ample evidence that the Russians were arming the so-called separatists and deploying troops prior to August 7 and provoking clashes.”

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s Ambassador to Nato, defended the Kremlin’s actions and rejected claims that it had used disproportionate force. Mr Rogozin told reporters in Moscow: “Georgia attacked South Ossetia and did so in an utterly brutal manner. It is a tragedy of Georgia because Georgia became smaller as a result.

“When you have acid splashed in your face and you put on brass knuckles and give the attacker a good punch, is that proportionate or disproportionate? If the response had been disproportionate I think we would have had our troops in Tbilisi.”

EU monitors observing the de facto border between Georgian and South Ossetian forces have stepped up patrols ahead of the report’s publication amid fears that it could provoke fresh clashes.

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