A spokesperson for Georgia's Defense Ministry told journalists that the wounded peacekeeper was urgently transported by helicopter to Tbilisi and hospitalized in the Gudushauri National Medical Center.
"The wounded peacekeeper is in a critical condition. He got a penetrating gunshot wound in the head. Our surgeons are conducting an emergency operation at the moment," the Center's head Gela Arabidze told journalists.
A ceasefire agreement was reached on Friday at an emergency meeting of the Joint Control Commission on Georgian-Ossetian settlement (JCC). The agreement came into force at midnight Moscow time on Saturday.
The Joint Control Commission is currently holding a meeting in an extended format in Tskhinvali (the capital of South Ossetia, a self-proclaimed republic in the north of Georgia). The meeting is to be attended by the heads of Georgian and South Ossetian security agencies, Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoys Lev Mironov and Vladimir Kiriyakin, and OSCE observers. The officials are set to work out effective mechanisms for disengagement of the conflicting sides' armed units.
Irina Gagloyeva, head of South Ossetia's Press and Information Committee, told RIA Novosti that "disengagement of the conflicting parties and withdrawal of all illegal armed forces are the main items on the meeting's agenda". The participants in the meeting also plan to visit all positions where the illegal armed forces brought into the area of conflict without JCC's permission may be deployed.
Ms. Gagloyeva added that the JCC meeting is also attended by commanders of the peacekeepers' battalions, commander of the joint peacekeeping force Svyatoslav Nabzdorov, and representatives of the OSCE.
According to her, the ceasefire agreement made on Friday was signed by Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. To ensure that, JCC's Georgian Co-Chairman Georgy Khaindrava had to go to Tbilisi.
"So far, the agreement has been observed by all parties involved. No gunfire has been registered overnight," Irina Gagloyeva said.
