Georgia and Russia exchange criticism over hostilities

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili says 90 per cent of the Georgians killed in the conflict with Russia are civilians. Monday at a news conference in Tbilisi he stated Russian tanks reached up to 5 km near the town of Gori in Central Georgia, “but were repelled at are now at 20 km of the town.” The president has not specified the number of victims, Info-Prim Neo has learnt from international news agencies' reports. Meanwhile, according to Georgian officials, Russian war planes bomb localities in the territory controlled by Georgia and the Black Sea port Poti. Russian military have acknowledged to have lost 18 and 4 war planes. Russia president Dmitry Medvedev has stated „the major part” of the military operations have been completed in South Ossetia, which was attacked by Georgia later last week in an attempt to regain control of breakaway region. Georgia said Sunday it withdrew from Ossetia, in front of superior military force of Russia, which keeps the peace in the area. Georgia says it has offered a truce to Russia, but the Russia side denies to have received the proposal. According to the Red Cross International Committee, some 40,000 people have left their homes in the conflict area. Russia says 2,000 have been killed, but the figures are rejected as too high by Georgia. In addition to military attacks, a number of official Georgian web sites have been attacked by Russian hackers, a move practiced by the latter ones against Lithuanian and Estonian sites earlier. [USA and Russia: is it a new proxy war?] The French “Le Monde” writes that, through this preventive war, „Russia takes its revenge for Kosovo, NATO (expansion – e.n.)” Premier Vladimir Putin criticizes the United States for airlifting the 2,000 Georgian military from Iraq. Putin said Monday the move will hamper the efforts to solve the conflict of Russia and Georgia. Meanwhile, the Russian envoy to the UN, Vitaly Churkin says he is disappointed with the lack of understanding on behalf of the UN Secretariat of the character of the situation in Ossetia. The UN Security Council discussed the situation without reaching any conclusion on Sunday, at a session described by observers as reminding of the Cold War rhetorics between the Russian and the American envoys. US president George Bush has said he firmly told prime-minister Vladimir Putin Moscow's offensive "is unacceptable and disproportionate". Vice president Dick Cheney told president Saakashvili over the phone "the Russian aggression should not remain unanswered.” Sources from the State Department are quoted as saying the Russians want Mikheil Saakashvili out, but even the Georgian president says Rusia wants „a change of regime” in Tbilisi. [The European reaction] The EU foreign ministers are to hold a meeting on Wednesday to develop a joint response as to the hostilities in Georgia. At Poland's request, the French Presidency, now holding the rotating EU Presidency, does not rule out a summit of heads of states and governments from the EU is possible on this issue. French president Nicolas Sarkozy is expected in Georgia on Tuesday, says Mikheil Saakashvili. Sarkozy is then to leave for Moscow to try to reach a cease-fire agreement. A statement spread by the office of the chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Carl Bildt, reads: " Both Georgia and the Russian Federation have committed themselves, when they joined the organisation, to settle all conflicts by peaceful means. This commitment must be respected ”. Lluís Maria de Puig, the chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), expresses, in a communique, his deep concern about the large-scale military operations taking place between two Council of Europe member states .