Despite calls from international officials late in the week urging Russia to hold its fire against neighboring Georgia, Russian forces showed no sign of backing off over the weekend, nor had the United Nations managed to make headway in curbing the conflict.

Update: Russia escalated its attack Sunday, pushing past the borders of the disputed region of South Ossetia.


AP via Newsday:

Russia expanded its bombing blitz Sunday against neighboring U.S.-allied Georgia, targeting the country’s capital for the first time while Georgian troops pulled out of the capital of the contested province of South Ossetia under heavy Russian shelling.

Georgia’s Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said the Georgian troops had to move out of Tskhinvali because of heavy Russian fire.

“Russia further escalated its aggression overnight, using weapons on unprecedented scale. In these conditions our forces conducted redeployment,” Lomaia said.

Russian jets raided a plant on the eastern outskirts of Tbilisi that builds Su-25 ground jets used by Georgia in the conflict. The attack inflicted some damage to its runways but caused no casualties, said Georgia’s Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili.

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