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The U.S. ambassador to Moscow, in a rare U.S. comment endorsing Russia’s initial moves in Georgia, described the Kremlin’s first military response as legitimate after Russian troops came under attack.

U.S officials, including President George W. Bush, have strongly criticized Moscow’s subsequent action but have not focused on the initial chain of events that triggered the conflict between Russian and U.S.-ally Georgia.

The war broke out after Georgia tried to retake its Moscow-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia, prompting a counter-attack by Russian forces.

In his first major interview since his arrival as Ambassador last month, John Beyrle gave the Russian daily Kommersant his views on the conflict and warned about its impact on U.S. investor confidence in Russia.

“Now we see Russian forces, which responded to attacks on Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia, legitimately, we see those forces now having advanced on to the soil of Georgia; Georgian territorial integrity is in question here,” Mr. Beyrle told the newspaper.

He said Washington had not sanctioned Georgia’s initial actions when on Aug. 8, after a succession of tense skirmishes, Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia, triggering a massive Russian reaction when its peacekeepers there came under fire.

“We did not want to see a recourse to violence and force and we made that very, very clear,” Mr. Beyrle was cited as saying in quotes the U.S. embassy confirmed as accurate.

“The fact that we were trying to convince the Georgian side not to take this step is clear evidence that we did not want all this to happen,” Mr. Beyrle said in the interview, which was published on Friday.

“We have seen the destruction of civilian infrastructure, as well as calls by some Russian politicians to change the democratically-elected government of Georgia. Some question the territorial integrity of Georgia. That is why we believe that Russia has gone too far,” the envoy said.

Mr. Beyrle said Washington still supports Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization, which has still not been finalized after more than a decade of talks.

The total number of causalities of the Georgian – South Ossetian conflict has been revealed. According to local authorities the conflict has taken the lives of 1492 Ossetians. More than 5,000 people from South Ossetia are still in refugee camps in the south of Russia.

Approximarely 30,000 people fled from Georgia’s offensive on August 8. Many have been staying with relatives or have been taken in by ordinary charitable people. RT met a young family of refugees who are now trying to piece their shattered lives together.

Refugees rely on the kindness of strangers

Whoever’s won this war, the Ossetian people have lost the most. Two of them, Ruslan and Khatuna Khelekhsaeva, say everyting they owned in Tskhinvali now lies in ruins.

They are very clear as to who they blame for having destroyed their lives.

“We blame Georgia and America for the war. It’s the second time they’ve bombed us. We can’t bear it anymore. No one can guarantee that Georgia won’t bomb us again,” Ruslan said.

We asked Ruslan whether South Ossetia should indeed break away from Georgia.

“Independence would be good in theory but we cannot defend ourselves against Georgia. So we need to be part of Russia. If Russia didn’t support us, then there would probably be no ‘us’ left on this earth,” he added.

Khatuna’s eyes cannot hide her pain. She recounts her experience:

“After all we’ve gone through, I don’t want to go back to Tskhinvali. Words cannot describe the five days we spent hiding in our basement, scared for our lives. I am haunted by those memories.”

They arrived in North Ossetia to find the refugee camp overflowing. They were taken in by Natalya Gabarayeva, a local woman.

“I’m doing my best to take care of them. I feel so sorry for them. They arrived here with nothing, and needed a roof over their heads,” Gabaraeva said.

Europe’s top human rights official has arrived in war-ravaged South Ossetia on a fact-finding mission. Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg from the Council of Europe Human is being accompanied by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Lukin. They say their goal is to gather evidence from all sides and to compile a report on their findings.

Thomas Hammarberg said: “I know that human rights were violated during the conflict.”

“I’m not going to involve myself in politics”, he said. “I am only here to look at the human rights situation and come up with recommendations on how these rights can be protected in the future. Our report will be objective and impartial”.

Vladimir Lukin added: “Many people had their rights violated, including the primary right to life, to housing, and so on. And this issue requires much attention – so we’ve come to find out what happened from that perspective.”