6:19pm UK, Sunday November 23, 2008

Russian forces have fired shots near a convoy of vehicles carrying the Georgian and Polish presidents.

 

Police cars at the checkpoint where Russian forces fired the bullets

South Ossetian security forces fired shots into the air as the presidents approached the breakaway territory, forcing them to turn back, a witness said.

The spectator, who was travelling with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, said uniformed South Ossetians fired the warning shots after the convoy came within 30 metres of the de facto border.

Saakashvili and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski were travelling along a mountain road in the direction of Ossetia, Polish secretary of state Michal Kaminski said.

“The cavalcade did not reach its destination and now we are returning to Tbilisi. We heard shots, we do not know what happened.”

Earlier this year Russian forces pushed into Georgia to repel a Georgian military bid to regain control of South Ossetia.

A five-day war followed in which the Georgian army was routed and Russian troops set up bases deep inside Georgian territory.

Moscow said it was protecting Russian citizens from Georgian aggression.

The Georgian government accused Russia of provoking the conflict to cement control over the region and destabilise its pro-West government.

Russian forces completely withdrew from buffer zones around Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia last month.