Russia Invades Georgia

As Russian troops advanced towards the capital of Georgia's separatist region, Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said "ethnic cleansing" had been reported in villages in South Ossetia amid a Georgian offensive to retake the breakaway region.

Mr Lavrov called on the West to reach "the right conclusions" over the conflict, saying the Georgian offensive had been made possible by Western military aid to Tbilisi.

"Now we see Georgia has found a use for these weapons and for the special forces that were trained with the help of international instructors," he said.

"I think our European and American colleagues ... should understand what is happening. And I hope very much that they will reach the right conclusions."

The military operation marks the first time Russian troops have taken action on foreign soil since the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989.

Georgia has warned that any involvement of Russian forces in the conflict would result in a state of war between the two countries.

The Russian military reported that ten Russians were killed and 30 injured during Georgian shelling of their barracks, but Georgian officials denied firing on Russian peacekeepers in the area during their offensive in South Ossetia.

Georgian troops had earlier launched a massive attack to regain control of breakaway South Ossetia, where officials said at least 15 people were killed and an unspecified number of people wounded.

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World War 3 (or 4) will begin here if this escalates to full outright war. Georga was almost in NATO and we cannot ignore this if it goes much further.