"It was horrible," said Tamro Kakashvili, who was baking bread Tuesday morning when a bomb hit her house in the village of Variani, near Gori. "Everything fell on my head. All of my body was buried in soil and mud."
The Associated Press reported that a convoy of 135 Russian military vehicles was moving from Abkhazia toward positions held by Georgia in the western section of the mountainous nation.
Reuters reported that pro-Moscow forces in Abkhazia had pushed back Georgian troops and taken control of the upper part of the Kodori Gorge, a narrow strip cutting into Abkhazia.
Humanitarian aid began to flow into the region, as both the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations refugee agency airlifted supplies to Georgia. The U.N. agency estimated that as many as 100,000 people had been driven from their homes, at least temporarily.
Even if a temporary calm takes hold, securing a lasting peace may prove difficult.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Tuesday that Moscow rejects Saakashvili as a partner in peace discussions.
"I don't think Moscow will be in the mood . . . even to speak to Saakashvili," Lavrov said at a news conference, according to Interfax. "He has committed crimes against our citizens. Our position is that Mr. Saakashvili can no longer be our partner. He'd better quit."
But analysts in Tbilisi said the Russian offensive had rallied even Saakashvili's opponents around him, giving him a temporary boost in popularity that probably will fade down the road.
In Tbilisi, thousands of demonstrators holding white-and-red Georgian flags took to the streets, honking their horns and cheering speeches by Saakashvili and others.
"Georgia! Georgia!" they chanted. The mood was defiant.
Both sides accused the other of "ethnic cleansing" in the conflict zone, and Georgia filed suit at the International Court of Justice.
Broad geopolitical issues underlie the conflict, which is ostensibly over control of two economically listless and sparsely populated enclaves that nonetheless remain strategically significant.
"The Russians think in terms of spheres of interest, and they think of the south Caucasus as part of their sphere of influence," said Sabine Freizer, a Russia expert at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels conflict-resolution advocacy organization.
