TBILISI, Dec 13: Russian troops reoccupied a Georgian village near breakaway South Ossetia on Saturday, forcing back Georgian police and drawing criticism from European Union ceasefire monitors.

An EU mission monitoring the fragile ceasefire since Georgia’s five-day war with Russia in August called on the Russian forces to immediately withdraw.

The mission said their presence in Perevi, a mountain village on a road into South Ossetia from the west, was “incompatible” with the EU-brokered ceasefire. Georgia said there were at least 500 Russian soldiers present.

Russian forces pulled back in October from a buffer zone adjacent to South Ossetia having repelled a Georgian military assault on the rebel territory in August. But it kept soldiers in Perevi, angering Tbilisi.

The troops pulled out of the village of 1,100 people on Friday. Georgian police moved in behind them, but the Russians were back by nightfall. Television pictures showed soldiers unloading sandbags from a truck and building up a checkpoint.

The EU monitors said they had verified that “Russian troops have reoccupied the Perevi checkpoint, near the administrative boundary line of South Ossetia, and even deployed a considerable number of troops in and around the village of Perevi.” They said in a statement that Russian troops had prevented European ambassadors from visiting the area.

“EUMM (European Union Monitoring Mission) calls on the Russian government to withdraw its units from the Perevi checkpoint and the Perevi village without delay,” it said.

South Ossetia, recognised by Russia after the war as an independent state with Russian military protection, accused Georgia of violating the ceasefire by deploying special forces to the boundary.

“About 60 special forces soldiers were deployed to the village of Perevi directly on the border with South Ossetia,” Interfax news agency quoted a South Ossetian defence ministry official as saying. “EU monitors are turning a blind eye.”

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said Russian troops had “put on a show” with helicopters, armoured vehicles and paratroopers. Georgian police withdrew. “The Russians kicked the police out of Perevi this morning,” he said.South Ossetia claims the village as its own. But the EU monitors say it clearly lies outside the region’s boundary.

The monitors claimed credit on Friday for the Russian withdrawal, saying it followed EU discussions with the Russian foreign ministry and military. South Ossetia and a second breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, threw off Tbilisi’s rule in wars in the early 1990s.

Russia said it intervened in Georgia to save civilians from a Georgian military bid to retake South Ossetia after months of skirmishes and Georgian allegations of Russian provocation. The West condemned Moscow’s response as disproportionate.—Reuters