Russian warships, planes escalate attack on Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia — Russia pressed its invasion of Georgia by land, sea and air for a third day Sunday, striking far beyond contested South Ossetia as the Kremlin brushed aside a cease-fire offer and disputed Georgia's claim to have pulled its forces out of the rebel enclave.

A stunned international community scrambled to bring an end to the expanding war, which broke out late last week after Georgian troops attempted to retake the pro-Russian breakaway republic of South Ossetia in a battle that left hundreds dead.

President Bush, in Beijing for the Olympics, sharply criticized Moscow's crackdown, saying the violence was unacceptable and Russia's response was disproportionate. He said he expressed his concern directly to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who's also in Beijing, and by phone to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

In Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney said that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered," and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States.

In escalated fighting Sunday, Russia unleashed airstrikes and artillery barrages on Georgian positions in South Ossetia and near the breakaway republic of Abkhazia as well as hitting sites in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and the garrison town of Gori.

Russia also began what appeared to be a naval offensive along the Black Sea coast where warships reportedly sank a Georgian missile boat.

Despite having retaken control of Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, and facing widespread calls for peace, Russia showed little sign of easing.

The assault suggested Russia was no longer interested in merely securing South Ossetia and aimed to weaken the armed forces of Georgia, a former Soviet republic and a U.S. ally whose Western leanings have long irritated the Kremlin.

Two senior Western officials said it was unclear whether Russia intended a full invasion of Georgia, but that its aims could go as far as overthrowing the country's U.S.-educated president, Mikhail Saakashvili.

"They seem to have gone beyond the logical stopping point," one senior Western diplomat said.

Speaking at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov acknowledged in a phone call with Secretary of State Condolezza Rice that Moscow wants Saakashvili replaced.

" 'Saakashvili must go,' " Khalilzad quoted Lavrov as telling Rice.

Asked by Khalilzad if Russia sought "regime change," Russian Ambassador Vitali Churkin replied tartly, "Regime change is purely an American invention."

In Washington, U.S. officials reacted with deepening alarm. They said Georgian troops had tried to disengage but the Russians had not allowed them to.

"The Georgians told them, 'We're done. Let us withdraw,"' one U.S. military official said. "But the Russians are not letting them withdraw. They are pursuing them, and people are seeing this."

The official added: "The Russians have gained all of their military objectives. This is not about military objectives. This is about a political objective — removing a thorn in their side."

Saakashvili, claiming his troops have withdrawn from Tskhinvali, told CNN: "We're not crazy. We have no interest whatsoever in pursuing hostilities."

But Moscow was far from satisfied.

Russian officials accused Georgia of regrouping its forces in preparation for a counterattack. Early today, dozens of Georgian tanks and vehicles carrying troops passed through Gori, heading north toward South Ossetia.

Authorities ordered lights out throughout the central Georgian city, the site of a major military base Russian warplanes bombed. Georgian media said people remaining scurried into basements after hearing the Russian planes.

Women and children were evacuated from the city of 50,000, many to the capital, where ambulances could be heard night and day ferrying the wounded to hospitals.

Witnesses said Georgian forces had suffered heavy casualties, although no reliable estimates were available on a death toll. At the town of Hashouri, 60 miles from the Georgian capital, police had set up checkpoints and choked off all traffic heading toward Tbilisi.

"The Russian planes are bombing!" they shouted to drivers. "It's too dangerous! Go back!"

Russian officials declared the conflict would continue until they saw clear signs the Georgians were backing down.

The escalation of fighting, despite strong diplomatic warnings from Bush and European leaders, underscores the limits of Western influence over Russia at a time when the rest of Europe depends heavily on Russia for natural gas and the United States needs Moscow's cooperation if it hopes to curtail what it sees as a nuclear-weapons threat from Iran.

Russian officials say Georgia provoked the assault by attacking South Ossetia last week.

But Western diplomats and military officials said they worried that Russia's decision to extend the fighting indicated it had sought to use a relatively low-level conflict in a conflict-prone part of the Caucasus region to extend its influence over a much broader area.

Tensions between the United States and Russia underlie the conflict in the Caucasus.

Moscow controlled Georgia, homeland of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Much to the chagrin of Moscow, Georgia's pro-Western government has thrown its lot increasingly with Washington, pushing to join NATO and supplying 2,000 troops for the U.S.-led effort in Iraq.

Those soldiers are returning home to help defend against Russia, reportedly flown home on U.S. aircraft.

At a time when the United States is pushing against Moscow's strenuous objections to install missile-defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, the offensive against Georgia serves as a message to capitals from Eastern Europe to Central Asia about the potential perils of defying Russia within what it considers its strategic sphere of influence.

Compiled from McClatchy Newspapers, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times reports.