Fifteen years have passed since the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war. Georgia commemorates heroes who died in the fight for Georgia’s territorial integrity.

The 5-day war took 411 lives and turned 130 thousand people into IDPs. Russian aggression in 2008 led to 20% of Georgian land being occupied and villages and the city of Gori destroyed.

On August 7, 2008, the separatists in the Tskhinvali region began intensive bombing of Georgian villages, which led to retaliatory fire, and on August 8, the Russian army invaded.

Fifteen years after the war, creeping occupation continues in the country. Villages are divided by barbed wire and artificial barriers, frequent abductions of citizens, and deprived rights to movement and receiving medical care – this is the reality near the occupation line.

Despite international appeals, Russia continues disregarding the 6-point ceasefire agreement mediated by the European Union. Official Moscow flouts historic judgments delivered by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which holds Russia fully responsible for all human rights violations across the occupied regions and the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL).