Early reports suggest that the US UNSC draft resolution condemns the Russians and calls for a return to the status quo prior to the Georgian offensive, a message the US has also publicly delivered through diplomatic channels.This comes as the Georgians insist they've pulled their forces back and call for cease-fire negotiations. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov disputes Georgian claims that their forces have left South Ossetia, the Russians...

The Russians refused Georgia's request for a cease fire. The UN says that the war is escalating and widening to Abkhazia. Interfax reports that "The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine of facilitating Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia and ethnic cleansing in the breakaway Georgian province by selling weapons to Tbilisi." I was talking about the conflict today with someone who commented (more or less) "I wonder if the Russians...

I'm unlikely to provide much in the way of news aggregation on the South Ossetian conflict tonight, so I wanted to make sure that I mentioned something about the Russian coverage of the conflict. If you're only reading the "western press," you may not be adequately aware of the kinds of accusations circulating in the Russian press and coming from Russian officials. In general, there's a lot of attention to the plight of South Ossetian refugees....

[This post includes a quick roundup of events and ends with some analysis; see also Rob Farley's morning summary of developments]Georgia has now declared a "state of war." This seems appropriate, as Russian bombs fall on communications, economic, and military targets throughout Georgia and Russian ground and naval forces advance. Bloomberg:Ships of Russia's Black Sea Fleet moved toward Abkhazia, another separatist region, and Russian jets are...

Rob Farley writes a very thoughtful post where he lays out his take, for the moment, on the Russia-Georgia conflict. Indeed, he leaves me feeling a bit embarrassed, as my own writing this afternoon was pretty inelegant.To be a bit less muddled, I am less sympathetic to the Georgian case because I think that escalating the war (and providing an excuse for Russian counter-escalation) was a damn stupid thing for Saakashvili to do, and a remarkably...

The first official U.S. statement on the escalating conflict backs Georgia and calls for cease fire:"We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia's territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.Rice issued her statement as Georgia, a former Soviet state that now wants to join NATO, said it would declare...