UN resolution on Georgia in progress

A Western draft of a UN Security Council resolution on Georgia demands compliance with the cease-fire and an immediate Russian withdrawal to lines held before the conflict.  The draft, due to be considered by the council later on Tuesday, also calls for the return of Georgian forces to their usual bases and refers to "the territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders."

Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev concurred with the importance of a negotiated resolution. Speaking on the telephone with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "Medvedev agreed with the... need to work out a Security Council resolution in connection with the situation around South Ossetia," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Specifically, the president expressed a desire for the UN's resolution on South Ossetia to include the text of a European Union brokered peace plan between Russia and Georgia.

On the ground, the situation remains largely volatile. Throughout Tuesday, Georgian sources had accused Moscow of not honoring a cease-fire agreement because Russian troops remained in place on Georgian soil. 

In censure of this lack of action, NATO called for a freeze on relations with Russia until the latter had fully withdrawn its troops from Georgia in line with the negotiated deal. In response, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of bias and support of a "criminal regime" in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital.

Nonetheless, following this decision, a small column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles were seen leaving the strategic city of Gori in Georgia - the first sign of a Russian pullback of troops from the region.

However, the same group of soldiers took about 20 Georgians in military uniform prisoner at a key Black Sea port in western Georgia on Tuesday, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint. The soldiers also commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report