war in Georgia

At the beginning of 2008, there was a serious deterioration in Russian-Georgian relations. The situation in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone began to sharply worsen in late July - early August. On the night of 7-8 August, when Georgia sent troops into the territories that had declared independence and shelled the capital of South Ossetia and the positions of Russian peacekeepers located on the demarcation line between the parties, and then proceeded to take control of the rebellious region, a large-scale armed conflict began, culminating the tensions that had preceded it. On the afternoon of 8 August, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the beginning of the entry of troops into the conflict zone (with some units entering earlier). Within a few days, Russian troops, together with South Ossetian armed formations, pushed Georgian troops out of South Ossetia and, in co-operation with Abkhaz forces, out of the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia, occupying a number of Georgian districts