MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. Ukraine and Georgia are helping each other get into the character of "the victims of the Russian aggression," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday after Kiev expressed solidarity to Tbilisi over the 2008 conflict in the Caucasus.

"The deliberate demonstration of support of ‘solidarity’ with Georgia in the statements made by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and President Pyotr Poroshenko is particularly noteworthy," the ministry said. "This is no accident. Kiev and Tbilisi are kind of helping each other to better get into the character of ‘the victims of the Russian aggression."

"Instead, they should have reviewed their own, rather ugly policies," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"The recent statement by the Georgian Foreign Ministry marking the anniversary of the 2008 conflict in the Caucasus is truly woeful," the ministry added. "Meanwhile, it is high time to realize that there are political decisions that have irreversible consequences, and the criminal shelling of slumbering Tskhinval with Grad missile launchers in the small hours of August 8, 2008, is a classic example of such a decision."

The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that "the reality today is that there are two independent states on the part of former Georgian territory - the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia." These states are free to determine their internal and foreign policy and take care of their own security as they see fit, as any sovereign government (including the equipping of and strengthening its border) would," the ministry said. By making a free choice in favor of a close alliance and rapprochement with a welcoming Russia they have found reliable support and protection."

Georgian forces attacked the breakaway region of South Ossetia on August 8, 2008. Russia had to intervene to protect the civilian population and its peacekeepers that were in the region since 1992. The five-day war claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, including 72 Russian soldiers. Moscow then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, after which Georgia broke off diplomatic relations with Russia.