[4][9] Georgian TV Rustavi 2 reported that four Russian planes bombed Gori at 11:00 a.m. Tbilisi time on 8 August 2008.

[5] By the evening of 8 August 2008, Russia dropped a bomb close to a textile factory and a cellular tower in Gori.

The downing of a Russian warplane and ejection of a pilot, whose bloodstained helmet was later broadcast by Georgian TV, was witnessed by civilians in Gori that day.

[18] Russian military stated on early 10 August that their country had no intentions of advancing further into undisputed Georgia from South Ossetia.

[6] Alexander Lomaia, Secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, stated that Georgian forces were "very well positioned" to defend Gori.

[22] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme calculated that about 80% of the residents of Gori had fled by 10 August.

Internally displaced people from South Ossetia, who numbered "a few thousand" according to Georgian officials, also began fleeing Gori.

"[34] The Times reported that the skills of the Georgian troops, who had been flown from Iraq by the US, "were of little value" in defense of Gori against Russia and they made an "undignified" retreat to Tbilisi and suggested that staying in Baghdad would have been better for them.

[39] Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili stated that Russians had split Georgia into two by occupying an important intersection near Gori.

[19] A reporter, travelling from Tbilisi to Gori on 12 August, witnessed dozens of ditched Georgian military transports and artillery on the road.

[41][42] The reporter wrote for the International Herald Tribune on 11 August that the Russian move towards Gori "seemed to suggest that Russia's aims in the conflict had gone beyond securing the pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to weakening the armed forces of Georgia.

[47] Russia's deputy head of the General Staff, Colonel-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, did not admit to Russian air raid on Gori.

[8] British Journalists later commented on the bombing of Gori's Stalin Square that "With no discernible military target, it seems clear that the Kremlin was effecting its own form of collective punishment on the town.

[52] The death of Stan Storimans and wounding of dozen civilians in central Gori on 12 August was attributed to a cluster bombing.

[54] The Russian military was warning during the march towards Gori on the morning of 13 August that they would not spare ethnic Georgian civilians in villages if the latter did not demonstrate signs of surrender.

[57][61] The Chicago Tribune noted that although the ceasefire was signed on 12 August, "the war continued to take a devastating toll Wednesday on civilians caught in the middle.

"[61] Russian forces captured Gori on 13 August,[62][63][64][65] several hours after French president Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated the ceasefire agreement between Russia and Georgia.

[70][56][71] Georgian servicemen occupied the road 6 miles (9.7 km) closer to Tbilisi and started setting up a line of defense.

[66][75] General Vyacheslav Borisov of the Pskov Airborne Division claimed that Russian troops would not advance past the periphery of Gori into the city.

[66] On late 13 August 2008, Aleksandre Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, departed for Gori because the people had asked for help and "to get [the Russians] out of the city and to let the police in."

Major-general Borisov said Russian troops would begin leaving Gori in two days and claimed that the rumours about damaged town and marauding "do not correspond to reality".

[76][77] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program workers were also preparing to enter Gori to lay the groundwork for humanitarian assistance.

[63] Combined patrol efforts by the Russian Army and Georgian police in Gori soon broke down at about 13:00 due to apparent tensions between servicemen.

The parts of Georgian army, which were entrenched nearby, did not deter Russians from blocking the key east-west highway of Georgia.

[87] Russian forces turned back some humanitarian aid missions trying to help the population, with only the United Nations (UN) managing to bring small food provisions to the city.

President of France Nicolas Sarkozy explained that the Russian occupation of Georgia's principal highway and Gori was not legally permitted under the ceasefire agreement.

Russians permitted the International Red Cross and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees entry into Gori.

[97] On 20 August 2008, the Russian forces stopped a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe near Igoeti and did not allow them to visit Gori.

[106] Journalist of German ARD TV told Vladimir Putin that he survived the Russian bombing of Gori by chance.

Putin insisted that Russia had the right to act so under international law and did not apologize for the bombing of the residential areas.