Moscow Agrees To Georgia Truce

A Georgian works to extinguish a fire in a destroyed building in the village of Ruisi, near the breakaway region of South Ossetia. There continued to be reports of violence in the area yesterday. (By Sergei Grits -- Associated Press)

Russian officials have said 2,000 people were killed in the Georgian offensive, a figure that has not been confirmed independently. But it is indisputable that large numbers of civilians were killed in and around Tskhinvali.

Western diplomats involved in trying to end the crisis said the Georgian assault on Tskhinvali was massively disproportionate -- as was the Russian response, which clearly involved the bombing of nonmilitary targets.

Russia's military has denied aiming at a oil pipeline that crosses Georgia, connecting Azerbaijan and Turkey. But craters were visible around the pipeline between the city of Rustavi and Akhali Samgori village, southeast of Tbilisi, according to Georgian and American sources and foreign reporters. In recent days, Russian planes also destroyed a cement factory, hit rail tracks, blockaded a port and created such a climate of fear that trade slowed dramatically.

Georgian officials, speaking privately, said the country has suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and estimated that double-digit growth figures for gross domestic product may plummet, at least in the short term, to 3 percent.

Matthew Bryza, the State Department's special envoy to the region, told reporters here that Washington was working on a major aid package to stimulate growth and "maintain stability." He didn't put a dollar amount on the assistance or say whether it would be structured as loans, grants or both. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has offered the equivalent of about $400 million to rebuild South Ossetia.

Even after Medvedev announced an end to operations, Russia continued to bomb the almost completely abandoned city of Gori, which led to the deaths of civilians, including a Dutch journalist. The city's central square, dominated by a statue of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who was born in Gori, was shredded with shrapnel from a bombing Tuesday afternoon. There were at least two other strikes on the city Tuesday afternoon, and no strikes were near military facilities in the city.

Gori's university and post office were burning Tuesday afternoon.

Georgian officials and U.S. officials said Tuesday night that Ossetian paramilitary forces were killing remaining civilians in Georgian villages near the South Ossetian-Georgian frontier and that Russian forces were failing to stop them despite entreaties from the authorities in Tbilisi. "It's bloodcurdling," one Western diplomat said.

Georgian positions in Abhkazia also came under attack Tuesday afternoon, and civilians and 600 Georgian police officers were driven out of the area. Abkhazia's leadership said its forces were behind the offensive, but an Associated Press reporter witnessed 135 Russian military vehicles heading for the Kodori Gorge, part of which is the only sliver of Abkhazia controlled by Georgia.

Thousands of refugees have fled the fighting, either to Russia or Georgia, depending on their ethnic allegiance. "All I had was a tiny house with two rooms, but no matter how small it was, it was my home," said Julia Zasiashvili, a mother of two children, who now lives in a small tent city between Gori and Tbilisi. She said residents of her village left bodies unburied as they fled their homes.

There were similar stories among Ossetians. "It looks like a small Stalingrad, doesn't it?" Teimuraz Pliyev, a 62-year-old resident of Tskhinvali, said to a Reuters reporter visiting the city. Stalingrad was site of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Pliyev said he and his family sheltered for three days to escape the fighting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described Saakashvili as a "criminal" because of alleged Georgian atrocities and said Tuesday that the Georgian president should step down. "It will be best if he left," Lavrov said.

Medvedev, using language reminiscent of the rhetorical thrusts of Putin, said at a news conference, "You know, lunatics' difference from other people is that when they smell blood, it is very difficult to stop them. So you have to use surgery."

But in Tbilisi, where tens of thousands gathered in the city center in a show of national solidarity, chanting "Georgia, Georgia," people continued to rally around Saakashvili, whose popularity, at least in the short term, has been significantly boosted by the crisis. "I promise you today that I'll remind them of everything they have done," he said, meaning the Russians. "And one day we will win." Striking a solemn tone, he appeared to move the crowd.