In Tskhinvali, it was believed that the war between South Ossetia and Georgia has not stopped since the beginning of the 1990s for a single day. As it turned out, they were right. The NEW Times correspondent spent the night of the assault on the capital of the unrecognized republic in the besieged city
In the reception of President of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoita is a crowd. Without a report to the head of an unrecognized republic, the deputy minister of defense Ibrahim Gaseev bursts. After a minute, the entire government of the government becomes known that from the Georgian village of Noli, along the Znowur road, a sniper and machine -gun fire on Ossetian military are conducted. So far, fortunately, without sacrifice. A little more than a day remains before the start of the war. The villages of Mugut and Didmukha were fired. The shelling by Georgia is recorded by the OSCE mission, refuting the rumor about the provocation by the Ossetians themselves. At first, Gaseyev does not want to take with the position of correspondent The New Times: “I don’t want to take a sin to my soul, what if you’ll smash your head there? "But in the end, it is possible to get into the recent shelling zone.
"There will be a war on them"
We stop a private car, and it turns out that we were fabulously lucky: the two young people who introduced themselves to Spartak and Artem agree to bring us to the border, but with the condition of “calling in one place”. This place is a private house of Spartak, from where men come out of garnets hung with garlands, machine guns and with a huge sports bag. As a 4th battalion of the Yuo Ministry of Defense in the village of Khetagurovo, we are transplanted from a passenger car to the Uazik “Bukhanka”, and there are more armed men. (Later, on the night of Thursday to Friday, this village was busy and destroyed by Georgian troops.)
“Georgians want war? They will receive it, ”says Georgy Bazhiev (he is Uncle Zhora), gently stroking the machine gun,“ there, look in that direction: a week ago, the riot police shot at this place. I have been fighting with them since 1990 and have not been tired. I would only give me an order - a bomb with great pleasure. "
In these shelters, everything is like in the war: white sand bags lie along the trenches, in some places “windows” are arranged, through which sniper rifles, machine guns and machine guns are directed towards Georgia. The cerebral headquarters of the Georgian military is located opposite, in the village of zero, to which only 300 meters. “We are playing with them here while playing with them, we know each other in the face,” explains Bazhiev. It is hard to believe. Uncle Zhora gives binoculars: in the eyepieces I clearly see how it is a gesture either welcomes me, or warns the Georgians. For some reason, he is in a white shirt, but with a sniper rifle. “A new shelling can be expected at any time,” says the battalion commander (he asks to “turn on the fantasy” and come up with his name; the present hides, photographed in a mask). - And not only sniper, but also mortar. Here in that building there is their headquarters in the basement. They want to control the Znowski segment, consider it their own. ”
The military relate to journalists as the most important persons in this war: “Just write the truth, brother. We do not ask much. ” They try to close us with their own bodies, offer body armor, do not allow us to lean out where it is not necessary. In the end, they are fed with spots and potatoes and pour “front -line 100 grams” - Ossetian beer, to taste more similar to kvass. At dinner, the fighters tell how the first conflict of recent days has flared up (on the night of August 2 to 3): “A guy, a peaceful resident, decided to plunge in the lake, and they shot him right in the water.”
An hour later, another shootout begins, lasting 40 minutes. The result: Ossetians undermined the Georgian armored personnel carrier. In response, the opponents set fire to the wheat field.
Former Tbilisi
Tskhinvali is ready for war. Every second man is in camouflage form, and almost all are armed. At the intersections, improvised posts from traffic cops, police officers and just volunteers are arranged at the intersections - just tie a red rag on the hand. There are few women and children in the city, they are evacuated by buses to Vladikavkaz, Rostov-on-Don and Stavropol. In addition to all other misfortunes in the republic, an outbreak of “African plague” was recorded - all pigs were scored and burned. At night, from the only Alan hotels located in the city center, outbreaks from howitzers are visible and a machine -gun queue is clearly heard. The commandants recommend that the guests not include light in the room, and also be ready to evacuate to the basement at any moment. The Georgian side is trying to occupy the so -called Priki heights, from the top of which Tskhinvali is visible at the palm of his hand.
There is no water in the city - they run from the courtyard to the courtyard of the whirlpool. Most shops and cafes are closed. On Moskovskaya Street on a concrete wall, it is written in huge letters: “$ Aakashvili, $ Anakoev - a shame on the Georgian henchmen.” People are tense: almost every family has relatives or friends in the mountains. Over the last days, in total, 5 villages were fired at different ends of South Ossetia. The village of Damens was most affected: 20 percent of the houses were destroyed.
In the Republican Somatic Hospital, until the night of the navigation of the city were 18 people, mainly civilians. The hospital is located on the outskirts of the city, and due to the ongoing fire, there was no way to deliver new wounded here. One of the victims, 88-year-old Marusya Ukayeva, tells The New Times through the translator: “I only led my son and grandson to war, and began to shoot. I wanted to hide in the basement, but the patients brought my legs, I did not have time. And then the bullet hit my shoulder ... ”The chief surgeon of the republic Nikolai Dzagoev smiles nearby:“ Well, since my grandmother began to compose history, he will live. There was no bullet - this is a fragmentation wound. Make a discount on age. " A young guy with a fragmented hand, despite the threat of blood poisoning, after treating the wound and dressing hastily leaves the hospital - he leaves for the aid of fellow soldiers. His comrade wants to do the same, but he is wounded in the leg. The leg is bleeding. Among the wounded there is a five -year -old baby, but they do not show it to us. The hospital is a separate tragedy of Tskhinvali: the plaster is pouring from the walls of the surgery, in the wards stale linen, doctors in white coats are forced to wear water buckets of barrels, and then go to operations. All this happens in the town where the former Tbilisa Street was renamed ... to Luzhkovskaya. But the Moscow authorities, apparently, are not able to help the small hospital.
Dancing with shelves
South Ossetia and Georgia until the last played a serious political game. The press regularly announced the next rounds of negotiations in the format of four (South and North Ossetia, Georgia and Russia). In fact, there were no and there were no negotiations: the leadership of South Ossetia blames the Georgian negotiator Teymuraz Jacobashvili, who, from the point of view of Ossetians, is trying to change the format, excluding Vladikavkaz and Moscow from the negotiation process. South Ossetia President Eduard Kokoita is an ardent opponent of format changes. He all the time refers to Moscow and really does not want Russia to fall out of the negotiation process. Outwardly calm, in camouflage, he just met with the ambassador of Great Britain to Georgia by Danis Kifom. In front of the amazed journalists, he reported him like a boy: - Why do the Europeans do not come to us, but regularly visit Georgia? Why are you teaching them to military affairs? Do you prepare against whom the Georgian army is preparing? The Georgian folk dance of Kintauri dance in the villages of your NATO. We have a fun record, show?
After public obstruction, the shocked ambassador left for Tbilisi, and the president answered the New Times to the question: - You just told the ambassador that in September a full -scale war will begin in the region. Where did you get such a foreboding? - The war is already going on. And God will give, it will not turn into a full -scale. God sees, Ossetians do not want war. But we will give an adequate rebuff, we will take tough measures.
Only a bullet Cossack ...
The Secretary of the Subeza UOO Anatoly Barankevich also quite officially uses the word “war”. With journalists before the assault, he met twice a day. He was the first of the officials of South Ossetia stubbornly circulating rumors that there were killed from the opposite side. He angrily says that after the analysis of shells, it turned out that the Georgians acquired 152-mm howitzers in Bulgaria. “Their mortar batteries are located in the village of Nikosi, behind the church. There are ancient burials of the Orthodox. And so they dug trenches in the place of this sacred cemetery, can you imagine? - Barankevich was indignant in an interview with The New Times. - What are they after that Orthodox? There are positions for snipers and machine gunners. And it is from there that they fire the city with howitzers, knowing very well that our military personnel will never shoot at the temple. ”
... If you go by car by the district from Vladikavkaz to Tskhinvali, then camps with Russian fighters from all over the country cannot hide from the eyes of journalists. None of the officials of the republic confirmed some armored personnel carriers of some armored personnel carriers that the column was moving towards the besieged Tskhinvali. But these rumors excite the city. Allegedly, everyone is only waiting for the order. Ossetians sacredly believed that in the event of full -scale hostilities, Moscow would intervene in the conflict. But after the start of full -scale hostilities, Russia was in no hurry to intervene. The moment for the attack in this regard was chosen correctly: to promptly make a decision in the conditions when the president of the country is on vacation, and the Prime Minister at the opening of the Olympiad in Beijing, Russia could not. In the Council of Council of Yuo, they also said that Tskhinvili at any time could move the Terek Cossack and the Almighty army of Donskoy. Even the Cossacks of the Amur Region called. And this is not to mention the northern Ossetians. If you believe the Council, then several thousand volunteers from all over the Southern Federal District are ready to protect the republic at any time. Everyone remembers the promise of Ramzan Kadyrov to send 15 thousand volunteers to the aid of Ossetia ... The war began. The development of events is unpredictable.
