Under a French-brokered ceasefire agreed on Tuesday, Russian and Georgian forces were to return to positions they had before Georgia launched its offensive against South Ossetia last Thursday night. But the Georgian interior ministry said that Russian troops were “destroying” Gori and demolishing installations in the port city of Poti.

Europe and the United States must make clear to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev — and the real power player, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — that more aggression and lies will not be tolerated. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice must leave no doubt that there can be no military solution to the dispute with Russia.

After five days of fighting, President Medvedev of Russia ordered his troops in South Ossetia to hold their fire and fixed a peace plan with President Sarkozy of France. In the United States, there was widespread dismay over the ease with which Moscow had imposed its will on a loyal US ally.

The decision by the Russian President was announced just as French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the conflict in Georgia, centred on the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.

Georgia’s Interior Ministry said that Russia had built up large forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia — breakaway regions that have support from Moscow — including 300 artillery pieces in South Ossetia alone. Russian forces, a spokesman said, were also poised just over the border at Larsi, where they could open a third line of attack.

Russia backs the separatist government in South Ossetia and sent in tanks and troops on Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia’s military offensive to take back the province, which broke away in the early 1990s after a separatist war.