ABSTRACT
In the night between 7 and 8 August 2008 Georgia launched a military operation to regain the territory of South Ossetia, de facto under separate rule since 1992. As a first step the Georgian side contacted the Russian peacekeepers to inform them that they were planning a military operation to re-establish ‘constitutional order’ in the ‘Tskhinvali Region’ (the Georgian term for South Ossetia) (https://www.spiegel.de" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">www.spiegel.de 25 August 2008). Shortly afterwards Georgian troops started bombing several areas of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, allegedly targeting Ossetian militia positions. The attack caused casualties among various people, including the Russian peacekeepers. Within a few hours Russian soldiers started entering South Ossetia through the Roki tunnel, connecting North and South Ossetia. Once deployed, the Russian 58th Army and Russian Airborne Troops in South Ossetia started an offensive, also through Abkhazia, where Russian naval forces blockaded part of the coast to allow some of their forces to land. They then joined with the troops coming from South Ossetia to attack Kodori Gorge and eventually converge in Gori, a few kilometres from South Ossetia. In five days the Russian troops occupied the Georgian cities of Poti, Gori, Senaki and Zugdidi and started marching towards Tbilisi. Only after a ceasefire agreement signed by Georgia and Russia on 15 and 16 August did the parties agreed to suspend hostilities, but Russia retained the right to keep troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia by virtue of a bilateral agreement with the two governments.
