GEORGIA CALLED for international intervention yesterday as Russian troops attacked towns outside separatist South Ossetia and Abkhazia, ignoring Tbilisi's offer of a ceasefire and growing international calls for peace talks.
US president George Bush told Russia to end its military action in Georgia, calling the move by Moscow's an unacceptable invasion of a sovereign state. He said "efforts might be under way to depose" the Georgian government.
"There is evidence that Russian forces may soon begin bombing the civilian airport in the capital city. If these reports are accurate, these Russian actions would represent a dramatic and brutal escalation of the conflict in Georgia," he told reporters at the White House after returning from China.
A Georgian government statement last night said: "The Georgian army is retreating to defend the capital. The Government is urgently seeking international intervention to prevent the fall of Georgia."
Russia's role was also strenuously denounced by US envoy Matthew Bryza, who was clearly angry as he disembarked from a Georgian Airways flight at Tbilisi International Airport yesterday afternoon.
The Russians were lying about their role in the conflict, Mr Bryza said. Russian "railroad troops" had entered the pro-Russian, breakaway Georgian enclave of Abkhazia two months ago. "Now we know why - to establish a supply line for a Russian invasion."
The US envoy accused Moscow of hiding the truth about its offensive in Georgia from its own people by censoring images "so shameful they cannot be shown on Russian television" and accused South Ossetian "peacekeepers" of firing at Georgian villages.
Alexander Lomaia, the head of Georgia's National Security Council, said: "Russian forces are occupying Gori. Georgian armed forces received an order to leave Gori and to fortify positions near Mtskheta to defend the capital. This is a total onslaught."
Gori, the birthplace of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and home to one of Georgia's most advanced military bases and hospitals, is about 80km north of Tbilisi.
"The Russians are also attacking towns like Senaki and Kareli, deep inside Georgia, using hundreds of tanks and armoured personnel carriers," said Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry.
"They are coming through from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. We have not engaged them because we have no troops in these peaceful areas," he told The Irish Times.
Moscow denied occupying Gori but confirmed the operation in Senaki, which is about 40km from Abkhazia, where local officials said their tiny airforce was trying to force Georgian troops out of the strategic Kodori Gorge, the only part of the region that is controlled by Tbilisi.
Interfax news agency later quoted Russian defence ministry sources as saying they had pulled out of Senaki after "eliminating" a threat to shell South Ossetia.
The expansion of Russia's operations in Georgia appeared to run contrary to a claim from President Dmitry Medvedev that its current mission was "to a large extent complete".
As European Union envoys flew to Moscow last night for talks with Mr Medvedev, and a US negotiator headed for Tbilisi, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili said he feared diplomacy would not be enough to stop a Russian onslaught.
"This provocation was aimed at occupying South Ossetia, Abkhazia and then all of Georgia," he said.