 Igor Konashenkov, Assistant Commander of the Russian Ground Forces, said that the units of the 58th Army were sent to aid peacekeepers and were near the entrance of Tskhinvali.Inal Pliev, the South Ossetian representative in the JCC, claimed that the fighting in Tskhinvali had killed several thousand civilians.President of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, had arrived in Tskhinvali.