BRUSSELS, August 8. /TASS/. Statement by the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, on the "tenth anniversary of the conflict between Russia and Georgia" turned out to be an attempt to distort the fact of very recent history, the Russian Permanent Mission to the EU said in a commentary on Wednesday.
"The above-mentioned EU Declaration leaves a strange impression - as if very recent history has been universally forgotten, providing a blank space to write it anew. Starting with its title, referring to the "conflict between Russia and Georgia", thus distorting the picture of what really happened in August 2008," the commentary said.
The Russian mission made a reminder to the EU’s External Action Service that the Georgian armed forces launched a massive attack on South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinval on the night from August 7 to August 8. In the course of it, they used rocket-launching artillery widely and attacked the Russian peacekeepers, who had been deployed in the much-troubled independence-minded region upon the Georgian government’s consent.
"Ten Russian soldiers were killed and forty wounded," the mission said. "Hundreds of local civilians were massacred, thousands left homeless. Somehow, the EU saw fit not to mention this fact, focusing instead on the Georgian ‘thriving economy’ and portraying it as a ‘model of democratic stability’."
"In the light of direct threat to Russian citizens in South Ossetia and to avoid a genocide of the people of the Republic, the Russian Federation had no other option but to use its armed forces to enforce peace," the commentary said.
The Russian mission also said the crimes committed by Mikhail Saakashvili’s regime, including the amassed military aggression against the people of South Ossetia have been confirmed by numerous documents, including the ones from the independent international fact-finding mission led by Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini.
The Tagliavini commission was established by a decision of the EU Council.
"We are appalled by such a short and selective memory displayed by the EU and hope that the EU will refrain from ungrounded and politicized statements in the future," the commentary said.