Russia denies troops have taken Gori
Moscow counters Georgian claim its forces invading town in South Ossetia. Meanwhile President Saakashvili says signed ceasefire document proposed by French, Finns. Mediators now head to Russia
Georgia's National Security Council secretary reported that Russian forces occupied the city of Gori on Monday and Georgian forces are fortifying positions near Tbilisi to defend the capital.
Earlier on Monday, Russian troops advanced 25 miles from separatist Abkhazia to the town of Senaki inside Georgia proper, a spokesman at the Georgian Interior Ministry said. "They have advanced in dozens of armored personnel carriers and are now in Senaki," he said.
But Russia's Defense Ministry denied the claim. "There are no Russian troops in Gori," a ministry spokesman said.
Later, Russian forces moved into the town of Zugdidi outside the breakaway province of Abkhazia and seized police stations there.
The Georgian president has already signed a ceasefire pledge proposed by envoys from the European Union.
President Mikhail Saakashvili said he signed the document together with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb. Saakashvili says the EU mediators will head to Moscow later Monday to try to persuade Russia to accept the ceasefire.
Mikhail Saakashvili accused Moscow of trying to overthrow his government as Russian troops pushed into two separatist regions of Georgia.
Despite the ceasefire offer, swarms of Russian jets launched new raids on Georgian territory Monday and Georgia faced the threat of a second front of fighting as Russia demanded that Georgia disarm troops near the breakaway province of Abkhazia.
Putin slams US aid to Georgia
Russian news agencies quoted President Dmitry Medvedev as saying that a "major part" of Russian operations in South Ossetia has been completed.
"A major part of operations to force the Georgian side, the Georgian authorities, into peace in South Ossetia has been completed," the reports quoted Medvedev as saying at a meeting with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticized the United States for airlifting Georgian troops from Iraq.
Putin said Monday that the US move will hamper efforts to solve Russia's conflict with Georgia over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. The US military has begun flying 2,000 Georgian troops home from Iraq after Georgia recalled them.
Medvedev and Putin (Photo: AP)
Earlier Monday, Georgia said it had received a Russian ultimatum that it must disarm troops near the breakaway province of Abkhazia or face Russian forces moving into Georgian-controlled territory.
Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said Gen. Sergei Chaban in charge of Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia conveyed the demand Monday through UN military observers in the area.
The Russian move was to mark a major escalation in the Russian-Georgian conflict over another Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia. With most Georgian troops concentrated in the east near South Ossetia, it could be hard for Georgia to repel a Russian offensive near Abkhazia, which lies further west on the Black Sea.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia have run their own affairs without international recognition after defeating Georgian troops in wars in the early 1990s. Russia has deployed peacekeepers there and granted most residents passports.
The tiny, US-allied Georgia, which has angered Moscow by seeking to join NATO, has accused Russia of trying to annex the two regions.
Russia's NTV television showed Chaban conducting tense talks with Georgian officers in the buffer zone that separates Abkhazia's Gali region and Georgia's Zugdidi region. Chaban said 9,000 additional Russian troops and 350 armored vehicles had arrived in Abkhazia to support Russian peacekeepers there.
He said Russian forces were also preparing to help disarm Georgian forces in the northern part of the Kodori Gorge, the only area of Abkhazia that has remained under Georgian government control.
Meanwhile Monday, more than 50 Jews turned to representatives of the Jewish Agency in Georgia requesting to immigrate to Israel. Some of them live in Gori, the city bombed by Russia. Alex Katz, head of the former Soviet Union unit in the Jewish Agency, arrived in Gori in order to assist the remaining Jews in evacuating the city.
Georgia launched an attack Friday to regain control over South Ossetia. Russia responded by sending in troops which pushed Georgian forces out of the provincial capital Sunday after fierce fighting. Since Friday, Russia has also bombed many sites in Georgia far from the conflict zone, drawing harsh rebukes from the United States and other Western nations.
AP and AFP contributed to this report
