Russia launches operation outside Georgia's breakaway regions
"..."Russian peacekeepers and support units are carrying out an operation aimed at... preventing Georgian forces from regrouping to carry new attacks on South Ossetia," a ministry spokesman said. "Senaki is one of the places where such actions were underway..."
Russia confirmed on Monday that its troops had advanced from the breakaway region of Abkhazia to the town of Senaki inside Georgia proper. Georgian Interior Ministry said Russian troops have moved into another town in western Georgia. (UPDATED)
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The Defense Ministry justified the operation in Senaki, which lies outside the so-called security zone along the de facto Abkhaz boundary, by a need to avert news attacks on another breakaway region of South Ossetia.
"Russian peacekeepers and support units are carrying out an operation aimed at... preventing Georgian forces from regrouping to carry new attacks on South Ossetia," a ministry spokesman said. "Senaki is one of the places where such actions were underway."
The deployment follows Russia's threat to move into western Georgia from Abkhazia if Georgian troops in the area refuse to lay down arms.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said Russian forces moved into the town of Zugdidi outside the breakaway province of Abkhazia and seized police stations there Monday.
Russian and Georgian officials say that Russian forces also have seized a Georgian base in the town of Senaki, further east.
The simmering conflict between Russia and its small, former Soviet neighbor erupted last Thursday when Georgia suddenly sent forces to retake South Ossetia, a pro-Russian province that threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s.
Moscow responded with a counter-attack that drove Georgian forces out of the devastated South Ossetian capital Tshkhinvali on Sunday. Russia says more than 2,000 people have been killed in the fighting and thousands more are homeless but these figures have not been independently verified.
Earlier on Monday Russia had rejected the ceasefire claim, saying Georgian attacks had continued in South Ossetia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that a military operation in South Ossetia was nearly over, Interfax news agency reported.
"A significant part of the operation to force the Georgian authorities to make peace in South Ossetia has been concluded," Medvedev said. "Tskhinvali is under the control of a reinforced Russian peacekeeping contingent."