 Georgian defense ministry official Mamuka Kurashvili said that the Georgians only responded to the South Ossetian shelling and suspected that Russian peacekeepers were also involved in the shelling of the Georgian villages.On 3 August, the Russian government said that the situation was becoming more and more dangerous.The South Ossetians began evacuation from probable war into Russia, which resulted in twenty bus-loads of refugees leaving the region on the first day.