As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announces he will punish Georgia, reports from the war-torn country suggest that Russia may not be fully withdrawing. Both France – the current president of the European Union – and the United States cautioned Russia to abide by the terms of the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the Manchester Guardian notes that Georgia's military has been decimated, and separately that Russia has threatened a nuclear first strike on Poland, and Ukraine offered to participate in a European-US missile shield.
Neither the diplomatic nor the legal ramifications of the conflict are clear yet, but Medvedev's government appears to remain determined to create facts on the ground before law or diplomacy can alter them.
