Prelude to war

In April 2008, Georgia accused Russia of shooting down a Georgian spy plane flying over Abkhazia. Russia denied involvement. Also Georgian interior ministry officials showed the BBC video footage of Russian troops deploying heavy military hardware in the breakaway region of Abkhazia and said that "it proved the Russians were a fighting force, not just peacekeepers." Russia denied the accusations.[88]

At 8:05 a.m. on 1 August two roadside bombs hit a Georgian police vehicle on a detour road connecting Georgian-populated villages near the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali.[89] The five policemen were wounded[90] (six according to the secondary sources [91][92]). Late in the evening, intense fighting began between Georgian troops and the forces of South Ossetia. Georgia claimed that South Ossetian separatists[93] had shelled Georgian villages in violation of a ceasefire. South Ossetia denied provoking the conflict. A South Ossetian militiaman was killed by sniper located in a Georgian police post.[94] The Russian peacekeeping command reported that snipers killed at least three people in Tskhinvali around 9 p.m. The command also reported that Tskhinvali came under mortar fire from the Georgian villages of Ergneti and Zemo Nikozi.[95] At 11 p.m. on 1 August South Ossetian side (information from the republican hospital in Tskhinvali) said that six people killed (Roin Doguzov, 22 years old; Garick Bestaev, 38 years old; Anatoliy Kabisov, 45 years old; Vyacheslav Dudaev, 38 years old, Dudick Guchmazov, 40 years old, and Djioev) and seven injured.[96]

On 2 August the South Ossetian side[who?] said that shelling and shooting resumed overnight. Mamuka Kurashvili, a Georgian Defense Ministry official in charge of overseeing peacekeeping operations, said that the Georgian side had opened fire in response to shelling of Georgian villages. Six civilians and one Georgian policeman were injured as a result of shelling of the Georgian villages of Zemo Nikozi, Kvemo Nikozi, Nuli and Ergneti, the Georgian Interior Ministry said.[95] The South Ossetian side said that another two people, including a Russian soldier from the Russian North Ossetian peacekeeping battalion, were killed in fighting on August 2, bringing the toll to six people killed and about 15 injured as a result of intense shooting by the Georgian side directed towards Tskhinvali and nearby Ossetian villages late on August 1 and overnight on August 2.[97][98]
The Russian military exercise Caucasus Frontier 2008, held almost concurrently with the joint US-Georgian Immediate Response 2008 exercise, ended on 2 August, after roughly one month of operations.[99][100]
2008 South Ossetia war
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Background
Timeline
Disinformation campaign
International reaction
Protests
Humanitarian response
International recognition of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia
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2008 Georgia–Russia crisis
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On 5 August, Russian ambassador-at-large Yuri Popov warned that Russia would intervene in the event of military conflict.[101][102] Dmitry Medoyev declared from Moscow that volunteers were already arriving, primarily "from North Ossetia", in the Republic of South Ossetia to offer help in the event of Georgian aggression.[103][104]

On 6 August South Ossetia and Georgia failed to agree on the format of talks. South Ossetian side had proposed holding a JCC session with the participation of Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and Russia’s North Ossetian negotiators in Tskhinvali on 9 August. Tbilisi has consistently refused to participate in the quadripartite JCC talks.[105]
According to the eyewitness account of a Nezavisimaya gazeta correspondent sporadic heavy shelling of Tskhinvali by Georgian military started on August 6. The weapons used by Georgians, the eyewitness claims, were mortars, artillery and sniper rifles. South Ossetian military officials speculated that the Georgian army was preparing for a full-scale attack on the city. Russian correspondents report that the city was under artillery and mortar fire that continued all night long.