Fighting Escalates Between Russia and Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia, Aug. 11, 2008— -- President Bush held a press conference Monday denouncing Russia's escalation of violence in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. In a Rose Garden statement, he pressed Moscow to accept an immediate cease-fire and to pull back its troops from the conflict zone.
"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," Bush said.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili signed a cease-fire pledge Monday, and at Georgia's request, the U.N. Security Council in New York called an emergency session -- the fifth meeting on the fighting in as many days.
Russian armored vehicles charged into Georgian territory on two fronts today, seizing a military base and four cities, despite diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting and Georgia's president signing a cease-fire agreement.

The Russian offensive had troops poised just inside the rebel province of South Ossetia at the border of central Georgia, but in a surprise maneuver, Russia sent armored units across the border into western Georgia.

A top Russian general told ABC News that the army had no intention of invading Georgian territory.

The invading tanks spilled out of Abkhazia, a second province that has broken away from Georgia, to seize a Georgian military base and a couple of towns near the Black Sea.

Georgian officials and the Echo Moskvy radio station later reported that Russian troops had also surged across the South Ossetian border and taken the town of Gori in central Georgia, a move that could split Georgia in half.

An ABC News team left Gori just hours before the Russians arrived and reported the town was nearly empty except for Georgian soldiers, who were streaming out of town on armored personnel carriers and pickup trucks, yelling that the Russians were coming.

Saakashvili visited the town briefly with the French foreign minister before he was bundled into a car and driven away amid rumors of an imminent attack. The few civilians who remained ran from the streets in panic.