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"Georgia is ready to start immediate talks with the Russian Federation on an end to all hostilities and a cease-fire," Interfax news agency quoted the Georgian Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement.
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A Russian peacekeeper sits at the checkpoint near the town of Tskhinvali, some 100 km (62 miles) from Tbilisi, Aug. 10, 2008. Georgia has withdrawn its forces from breakaway South Ossetia, where they had been fighting Russian troops for control, the Georgian interior ministry said on Sunday. But the Russian army said Georgian forces were still there. |
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that it has received the note. However, it said exchanges of fire continued in the region and Georgian troops have not been fully withdrawn.
Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said at a press conference in Moscow that peacekeepers have controlled most part of the regional capital Tskhinvali.
"The situation is changing rapidly," Nogovitsyn said, adding that Georgia is pulling in reserves and continues to withdraw troops from Tskhinvali.
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Georgian soldiers sit on a tank moving near the town of Tskhinvali, some 100 km (62 miles) from Tbilisi, Aug. 10, 2008. Georgia has withdrawn its forces from breakaway South Ossetia, where they had been fighting Russian troops for control, the Georgian interior ministry said on Sunday. But the Russian army said Georgian forces were still there. |
He also told the press that Lt. Gen. Anatoly Khrulyov, commander of the 58th army of the North Caucasus Military District, was wounded by a shell fragment and hospitalized in Vladikavkaz.
Peacekeepers' headquarters said that some 7,400 Georgian troops, about 100 tanks and artillery engaged in the offensive in Tskhinvali.
Meanwhile, Georgian National Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaya said Georgian forces have moved to new positions on Sunday following Russian air strikes that continued almost overnight Saturday.
Over 2,000 people were killed in the onslaught in South Ossetia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said at a Sunday briefing in Moscow, adding that over 30,000 refugees had been forced to leave Tskhinvali and other towns.
Speaking at a meeting with chairman of the Investigative Committee, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday called Georgia's actions in South Ossetia genocide.
"The forms of the actions of the Georgian side cannot be described otherwise than genocide because they assumed massive nature and were aimed against individual people -- civilians and peacekeepers who performed their peacekeeping functions in the region," he said