United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

Reuters reported early on Tuesday that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive in Moscow in a few hours and was then expected to fly to Georgia in diplomatic effort to end the fighting, but at the same time Abkhazian forces began an assault on Georgian troops in the Kodori Gorge and U.S. President George W. Bush made his strongest statement to date on the crisis, denouncing its "dramatic and brutal escalation" as "unacceptable in the 21st century."[1] -- A "senior U.S. official" said that "This appears to be a full invasion of Georgia with an end result uncertain and an objective that is not clear but appears to be aggressive in nature. Words like invasion should not be used lightly but this is an invasion." -- DPA reported that Tbilisi was calmer Tuesday morning as rumors of "a fast-moving Russian tank offensive intent on throwing out the Georgian national government" subsided, the capital "having passed its first night in five days without a Russian airstrike in the vicinity. Traffic was moving normally, but banks across Georgia were closed."[2] -- DPA also reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin made light of George W. Bush's critcisms, "calling U.S. support for Georgia after the destruction of the Ossetian city Tskhinvali and the death of hundreds of its citizens under Georgian artillery fire 'an example of truly startling cynicism.'" ...

** France's Sarkozy starts ceasefire mission -- President Bush tells Russia to end conflict -- Abkhazia starts offensive in Kodori -- Russian troops push deep inside Georgia **

Reuters
August 12, 2008 -- 12:46 a.m. EDT [4:46 a.m. GMT; 8:46 a.m. Moscow time]

TBILISI -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy will lead efforts on Tuesday to end hostilities between Russia and Georgia as the conflict appeared to widen with pro-Moscow rebel forces opening a fresh offensive against Georgian troops.

Sarkozy was due to arrive in Moscow at 0910 GMT and meet President Dmitry Medvedev before flying to Georgia on a day of intense diplomacy aimed at ending violence in a region key to international oil transit.

Pro-Western Georgia and Russia came into direct conflict over South Ossetia last week after Tbilisi launched an offensive to regain control over the pro-Moscow breakaway separatist region.

Hostilities appeared to broaden as Abkhazia, another Russia-backed rebel region, launched an offensive at dawn on Tuesday to force Georgian troops out of the disputed Kodori gorge, Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said.

"The operation to liberate Kodori gorge has started," he told Russia's Vesti channel. "Our troops are making advances. We are hoping for success."

U.S. President George W. Bush demanded Russia end its armed conflict with Georgia and accused the Kremlin of trying to topple Georgia's leadership.

"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," Bush said.

He said a "dramatic and brutal escalation" of Russia's push into Georgia would jeopardize relations with the West.

Georgia hosts a key oil pipeline supplying the West and the fighting has unsettled oil markets. It has alarmed investors in Russia and has raised fears of a wider conflagration in the volatile region bordering Iran, Turkey, and Russia.

Asked what would happen if Moscow ignored Bush's appeal, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said:

"There is of course a variety of other measures, political or economic," he said, without elaborating.

Moscow has snubbed Western pleas for a ceasefire and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, taking a leading role in the crisis, has accused Georgia of sparking the crisis.

"The Cold War has long ended but the mentality of the Cold War has stayed firmly in the minds of several U.S. diplomats. It is a real shame," Putin said.

Russian officials have said they have no intention of occupying territory beyond South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

But Russian forces appear to have pushed farther into Georgia. Bush also said there was evidence Russian forces would soon begin bombing the civilian airport in the Georgian capital.

Georgia called for a U.N. peacekeeping force to intervene to halt its conflict with Russia, and said its battered forces had retreated to defend the capital Tbilisi.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Moscow should know Georgia will not quit. "Georgia will never surrender," he said on CNN. "They (Russians) should know Georgia will never surrender."

Georgia's acting head of its embassy in London said there was a need for international troops to get involved:

"Let it be a U.N-mandated international force, ideally EU," Giorgi Badridze told Reuters in an interview late on Monday.

Saakashvili said Russian forces had taken control of Georgia's main east-west route, effectively bisecting the country. He urged Georgians to stay home and not panic.

At the United Nations, permanent Security Council member Russia dismissed as unacceptable a French draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in Georgia that was due to reach the U.N. Security Council soon.

Saakashvili said earlier he had agreed to a plan proposed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner under which hostilities would end, a mixed peacekeeping force would be deployed -- replacing the purely Russian one -- and troops would return to pre-conflict positions.

A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition he not be named, said the outlook was "grim" and that Russia had planned its moves in Georgia for some time.

"This appears to be a full invasion of Georgia with an end result uncertain and an objective that is not clear but appears to be aggressive in nature," said the official. "Words like invasion should not be used lightly but this is an invasion."

In Georgia, an emergency session of parliament was called on Tuesday. Russia says 1,600 people have been killed in the fighting and thousands are homeless but these figures are not independently verifiable.

(Additional reporting by Tanya Mosolova and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Dmitry Solovyov in Buron, Denis Sinyakov in Tskhinvali, James Kilner in Tbilisi, Adrian Croft in London, Margarita Antidze in Gori, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, and the Washington bureau; writing by Kristin Roberts and Maria Golovnina; Editing by Matthew Jones)

MOSCOW/TBILISI -- Russia military forces turned up the pressure on their Georgian opponents on Tuesday as international diplomats scrambled to bring a ceasefire to the widening war in Ossetia.

The sharpest combat as of Tuesday morning was in the Kodori Gorge in Georgia's west, where Abkhazia infantry and armour began an attack on Georgian defenses, according to a Georgian government report.

The six-day-old Ossetia war has sparked fighting between Georgia on two fronts, in Georgia's separatist province South Ossetia, and on the border between Georgia and its second separatist province Abkhazia.

Russian armored columns moving south from Ossetia into Georgia proper had according to eyewitnesses halted in the vicinity of the Georgian town Gori, outside the original Ossetian conflict zone and some 70 kilometers short of Tbilisi.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in a late Monday evening television statement warned of Russia's intention to occupy all of Georgia and accused the Kremlin of committing 'ethnic cleansing' by invading Georgia via the Ossetia and Abkhazia provinces.

Rumors flew through the Georgian capital late Monday night and early Tuesday morning of a fast-moving Russian tank offensive intent on throwing out the Georgian national government.

But as Tuesday dawned the Georgian capital was quiet, having passed its first night in five days without a Russian airstrike in the vicinity. Traffic was moving normally, but banks across Georgia were closed.

Strong Russian armored columns on the second western front held Georgia's Zugdidi district, adjacent to Abkhazia, by Tuesday morning, Georgia's Rustaveli-2 television reported.

The powerful force of some 9,000 naval infantry and 350 tanks and armored personnel carriers had by that time not come into contact with the region's reported defenders: a brigade of U.S.-trained Georgian infantry with combat experience in Iraq, and flown aboard U.S. Air Force cargo jets into Tbilisi on Monday.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday condemned Russia's actions to date as a 'dramatic and brutal escalation' apparently meant to oust the Georgian government.

'It now appears that an effort may be underway to depose (Georgia's) duly elected government,' Bush said at the White House shortly after returning from the Olympics in Beijing. 'I am deeply concerned by reports that Russian troops have moved beyond the zone of conflict.'

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin retorted sharply to the U.S. president's words, calling U.S. support for Georgia after the destruction of the Ossetian city Tskhinvali and the death of hundreds of its citizens under Georgian artillery fire 'An example of truly startling cynicism.'

Russian officials led by Putin have repeatedly cited NATO attacks on Serbia during the 1999 Kosovo war as justification for Russian attacks on Georgia during the present Ossetia war.

Russian President Dimitry Medvedev described Georgian military operations in South Ossetia as 'genocide,' Interfax reported.

'They were on a mass scale and were directed against individuals,' he was quoted as saying.

The United Nations Security Council in New York held a fourth round of discussions late on Monday to discuss policy on resolving the conflict. The meeting, like the three before it, failed to develop a common position, with permanent members U.S. and Russia disagreeing sharply.

Tbilisi was scheduled on Tuesday to see an unprecedented parade of foreign leaders led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy flying in to discuss possible ceasefire terms with Georgia's leadership.

Sarkozy was first planning to visit Moscow to discuss a three-phase ceasefire plan developed by the French government, and accepted by Saakashvili, with the Kremlin.

Other senior dignitaries scheduled to arrive in Georgia included the presidents of Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and Estonia, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russian military casualties since Thursday's outbreak of fighting was 16 dead and some 100 wounded, a Russian 58th Army spokesman said.

Georgian military casualties as of Monday were some 90 dead and 500 wounded, according to the latest Georgian Army estimates.

Confirmed civilian dead are in excess of 200, and may exceed 2,000, according to unconfirmed reports.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, released 2 million dollars Monday to provide humanitarian support to people displaced by the fighting.

The UNHCR said the first flight carrying relief supplies was due to arrive Tuesday from Dubai with a second leaving Copenhagen on Wednesday. The two flights will carry enough relief supplies for at least 30,000 people reported to have fled South Ossetia.

About 25,000 refugees from South Ossetia's population of 70,000 have fled north and are living in camps and hostels in Valdikavkaz. Some 2,000 people, among them foreigners, fled Georgia into Armenia.