Fighting continues, Russia sinks Georgian ship

The Russian Defense Ministry says that its warships on Sunday sank a Georgian ship armed with missile launchers. Russian news agencies say that this came when the Georgians twice attempted to attack the Russian flotilla, which then returned fire. Fighting continues, Russia sinks Georgian ship "One of the Georgian ships then started sinking," Beta news agency quoted Russian sources this evening. The Defense Ministry's report does not mention the type of vessels involved or the location of the incident. Earlier in the day, the Russian Navy said that its ships, originally reported to have been near the Georgian waters, had docked in Novorossiisk, in northern Black Sea. Meantime on the ground, Reuters says that Georgia offered a ceasefire and peace talks "after pulling troops back from South Ossetia's separatist capital but some fighting continued and Russia demanded an unconditional withdrawal". Earlier in the day, the deputy commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia confirmed that the capital of Tskhinvali had been "completely cleaned of Georgian troops", and that the Russian soldiers continued to push them toward the administrative border with Georgia. According to Reuters, Russian planes again bombed the Tbilisi military airport while one bomb exploded near the runway of the civilian international airport. Moscow has denied targeting that facility. Beside the fighting in the South Ossetian capital, heavy clashes broke out around the Georgian town of Gori, outside the breakaway region's territory. Gori was the target of Russian air raids yesterday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said today that Moscow will not start ceasefire negotiations with Tbilisi until Georgian forces fully withdraw to earlier positions, and accused the West of hampering Russia's "operation to impose peace". "Georgia needs to withdraw its army to the 1992 lines, as was determined by agreements. It is necessary to sign an agreement to prevent the use of force. Lacking this, there can be no discussion about the start of negotiations," he was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency. Karasin also criticized western countries of "behaving strangely during the first hours of the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia, maintaining an inexplicable silence". "Then, as if on cue, some countries assumed a position critical of Russia, and now they are standing in the way of the realization of the operation to impose peace, doubting our methods, goals, pace," the Russian diplomat said. Meanwhile in Tbilisi, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said that neighboring Russia "wants to conquer Georgia in order to secure energy routes from central Asia" and in order to get rid of his democratic regime. "They want the whole of Georgia," he told Germany's Rhein-Zeitung daily in an interview on Sunday. Saakashvili also said he spoke to U.S. President George Bush who gave him his "full support". "In this case, this is not just about Georgia, this attack can in a way be considered as aggression on the United States," the Georgian president was quoted as saying. The current fighting began three days ago when Georgian forces launched a surprise attack to regain control of South Ossetia, which has had de facto independence since the end of a civil war in 1992. The move followed days of exchanges of heavy fire with the Russian-backed separatists. In response to the Georgian crackdown, Moscow sent armored units across the border frontier, the BBC said. A scene near the town of Gori (Beta) In Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after a telephone conversation with French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy that it will take a complete withdrawal of Georgia's troops for the situation in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone to normalize. In addition, the Kremlin press service said, Tbilisi must sign a formal binding agreement not to use force against the breakaway republic in the future. Medvedev described the Georgian attack on the region as "barbaric", and said more than 2,000 people died as a consequence, most of them holders of Russian passports, while a number Russian soldiers also died or were wounded, with 30,000 refugees leaving their homes. "There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the region. On the political level, the aggressive Georgian action has brought down an entire process of seeking a peaceful solution to the Georgian-South Ossetian problem. With this, the Georgian leadership has in essence done irreparable damage to the integrity of its own state," Medvedev warned, echoing a similar statement from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who was in the area yesterday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today declared Saakashvili no longer a partner for his country, but did not condition a solution to the developing crisis with his departure from the scene. "The man who gave orders to commit war crimes that resulted in the deaths of thousands of peaceful civilians cannot be considered to be a partner by Russia," he told journalists. Lavrov denied earlier reports that in his conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he demanded that Saakashvili resigns, and said this was "a misinterpretation". Meanwhile, after two failed attempts to formulate a joint reaction of the UN Security Council to the war in the Caucasus, "the United States condemned Russia's disproportionate and dangerous military action", while "France, the holder of the EU presidency, sent its foreign minister on a peace mission," Reuters said. Earlier in the day, the BBC said that in the absence of independent verification, there were conflicting figures about the casualties suffered on both sides but the numbers appeared to rise sharply on Saturday. Based on Russian and South Ossetian estimates, the death toll on the South Ossetian side was at least 1,500, mostly civilians. Georgian casualty figures ranged from 82 dead, including 37 civilians, to a figure of about 130 dead. Medvedev, Putin, in conversation late on Saturday (Beta)

Fighting continues, Russia sinks Georgian ship

"One of the Georgian ships then started sinking," Beta news agency quoted Russian sources this evening.

The Defense Ministry's report does not mention the type of vessels involved or the location of the incident.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Navy said that its ships, originally reported to have been near the Georgian waters, had docked in Novorossiisk, in northern Black Sea.

Meantime on the ground, Reuters says that Georgia offered a ceasefire and peace talks "after pulling troops back from South Ossetia's separatist capital but some fighting continued and Russia demanded an unconditional withdrawal".

Earlier in the day, the deputy commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia confirmed that the capital of Tskhinvali had been "completely cleaned of Georgian troops", and that the Russian soldiers continued to push them toward the administrative border with Georgia.

According to Reuters, Russian planes again bombed the Tbilisi military airport while one bomb exploded near the runway of the civilian international airport.

Moscow has denied targeting that facility.

Beside the fighting in the South Ossetian capital, heavy clashes broke out around the Georgian town of Gori, outside the breakaway region's territory.

Gori was the target of Russian air raids yesterday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said today that Moscow will not start ceasefire negotiations with Tbilisi until Georgian forces fully withdraw to earlier positions, and accused the West of hampering Russia's "operation to impose peace".

"Georgia needs to withdraw its army to the 1992 lines, as was determined by agreements. It is necessary to sign an agreement to prevent the use of force. Lacking this, there can be no discussion about the start of negotiations," he was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency.

Karasin also criticized western countries of "behaving strangely during the first hours of the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia, maintaining an inexplicable silence".

"Then, as if on cue, some countries assumed a position critical of Russia, and now they are standing in the way of the realization of the operation to impose peace, doubting our methods, goals, pace," the Russian diplomat said.

Meanwhile in Tbilisi, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said that neighboring Russia "wants to conquer Georgia in order to secure energy routes from central Asia" and in order to get rid of his democratic regime.

"They want the whole of Georgia," he told Germany's Rhein-Zeitung daily in an interview on Sunday.

Saakashvili also said he spoke to U.S. President George Bush who gave him his "full support".

"In this case, this is not just about Georgia, this attack can in a way be considered as aggression on the United States," the Georgian president was quoted as saying.

The current fighting began three days ago when Georgian forces launched a surprise attack to regain control of South Ossetia, which has had de facto independence since the end of a civil war in 1992.

The move followed days of exchanges of heavy fire with the Russian-backed separatists. In response to the Georgian crackdown, Moscow sent armored units across the border frontier, the BBC said. In Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after a telephone conversation with French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy that it will take a complete withdrawal of Georgia's troops for the situation in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone to normalize.

In addition, the Kremlin press service said, Tbilisi must sign a formal binding agreement not to use force against the breakaway republic in the future.

Medvedev described the Georgian attack on the region as "barbaric", and said more than 2,000 people died as a consequence, most of them holders of Russian passports, while a number Russian soldiers also died or were wounded, with 30,000 refugees leaving their homes.

"There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the region. On the political level, the aggressive Georgian action has brought down an entire process of seeking a peaceful solution to the Georgian-South Ossetian problem. With this, the Georgian leadership has in essence done irreparable damage to the integrity of its own state," Medvedev warned, echoing a similar statement from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who was in the area yesterday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today declared Saakashvili no longer a partner for his country, but did not condition a solution to the developing crisis with his departure from the scene.

"The man who gave orders to commit war crimes that resulted in the deaths of thousands of peaceful civilians cannot be considered to be a partner by Russia," he told journalists.

Lavrov denied earlier reports that in his conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he demanded that Saakashvili resigns, and said this was "a misinterpretation".

Meanwhile, after two failed attempts to formulate a joint reaction of the UN Security Council to the war in the Caucasus, "the United States condemned Russia's disproportionate and dangerous military action", while "France, the holder of the EU presidency, sent its foreign minister on a peace mission," Reuters said.

Earlier in the day, the BBC said that in the absence of independent verification, there were conflicting figures about the casualties suffered on both sides but the numbers appeared to rise sharply on Saturday.

Based on Russian and South Ossetian estimates, the death toll on the South Ossetian side was at least 1,500, mostly civilians. Georgian casualty figures ranged from 82 dead, including 37 civilians, to a figure of about 130 dead.