The Russo-Georgian War had a huge humanitarian impact on the lives of civilians. In the aftermath of the war, ethnic Georgians were expelled from South Ossetia and most of the Georgian villages were razed.
South Ossetians Tskhinvali Russian media reported on 9 August that several journalists in Tskhinvali had gone into hiding as they appealed to the international community for right of passage. Mart Laar, Estonian adviser to Georgian president, alleged by 13 August 2008 that Russia was not allowing international missions into Tskhinvali so the people under the rubble would die.
Mayor of Tskhinvali Robert Guliev claimed on 12 August 2008 that almost 70% of Tskhinvali buildings were damaged or destroyed. Russian deputy Minister of Regional Development Vladimir Blank said that about 20 percent of Tskhinvali's some 7,000 buildings had been damaged and 10 percent were "beyond repair".
According to western journalists who had begun arriving in the city and were toured by the Russian military on 12 August, some urban areas "seemed to have little damage", while Tskhinvali's government area took the severe blow. Tskhinvali hospital was minimally damaged. Gazeta.ru reported that the term "wiped off from the Earth" did not apply to Tskhinvali. The Wall Street Journal reported on 15 August that Tskhinvali had not suffered severe damage from the war. Western journalist visited Tskhinvali on 17 August and wrote for McClatchy DC that "almost all of the buildings seen in an afternoon driving around Tskhinvali were still standing." He further noted that Tskhinvali "was scarred but still standing" while Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Anatoliy Nogovitsyn had claimed that "Tskhinvali doesn't exist, it's like Stalingrad was after the war."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) visited the mostly desolate Tskhinvali on 13 August 2008 and reported that "numerous" buildings had been affected by the war, adding that some buildings had been attacked by "inherently indiscriminate" weapons normally not used in civilian zones. Such weapons are BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers. HRW could not "definitely" lay blame for the wreckage either on Georgia or Russia due to the use of the exactly same Soviet armaments by both countries. Human Rights Watch reported that a projectile launched from a Grad could have been responsible for wrecking several rooms of the Tskhinvali hospital. One doctor told Human Rights Watch that all the wounded had to be relocated to the basement.
Refugees
The UN refugee agency, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that thousands of refugees left South Ossetia, mostly for North Ossetia–Alania in Russia by 8 August. Russian government agency in Vladikavkaz had counted the number of recorded South Ossetian refugees by 10 August 2008, which stood at 24,032; however, some of those refugees had been logged several times due to frequent travel and after Russia's full-scale invasion of Georgia, 11,190 of those refugees returned to South Ossetia, some of them to fight against Georgia.
On 14 August 2008, the Russian authorities reported that more than 12 thousand refugees had returned to South Ossetia.
On 15 August, the UNHCR said at least 30,000 people had arrived in North Ossetia from South Ossetia, with total number of displaced people (both Ossetians and Georgians) now standing at 115,000. On 16 August 2008, ITAR-TASS put the number of refugees present in North Ossetia at over 10,000 people.
Casualties
On 8 August 2008, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged the combatants to form a humanitarian corridor in South Ossetia to move the injured civilians out. The International Red Cross had information on 9 August that Tskhinvali hospitals were "overflowing".
On 9 August, the Russian ambassador to Georgia Vyacheslav Kovalenko claimed that at least 2,000 civilians were killed in Tskhinvali, adding that "The city of Tskhinvali doesn't exist anymore." According to western journalist who toured in Tskhinvali along with other western journalists by the Russian military on 12 August, there was hardly any proof that Georgian military intentionally attacked civilians and some Ossetian civilians admitted that the probable main targets of the Georgian military were the government buildings.
According to a doctor at Tskhinvali hospital, the hospital handled 273 injured (predominantly military) from 6 to 12 August, and received forty-four bodies (the majority of Ossetians killed in Tskhinvali). According to a later report by the Russian blogger, he asked the same doctor: "Could there possibly be 2,000 dead?" The doctor answered him: "If you’re counting the entire district, then yes."
Several South Ossetian women told HRW on 12 August that Georgian soldiers they had met did not want to attack the civilians and apparently only militias and hostiles were their targets. On 13 August, Human Rights Watch said that Georgian villagers in South Ossetia were threatened due to the conscious exaggeration of South Ossetian casualties by the Russian authorities. HRW representative also said: "By day five of a conflict one normally expects that there is some kind of list of the dead and injured, or at least an indication of their age and gender."
On 14 August, Russian and South Ossetian prosecutors started to investigate "genocide" perpetrated by Georgia against the Ossetian people. South Ossetian officials claimed 200 civilian corpses had been discovered while Russian investigators had found 60 dead civilians. While Russia was accusing Georgia of committing "genocide" in South Ossetia, The Wall Street Journal wrote that there was "little evidence of a high death toll." The WSJ reported that "the only dead bodies on show in Tskhinvali were those of five Georgian soldiers." On 20 August, the number of dead civilians identified was put by Russian official investigators at 133; The new reduced estimate was a tenth of the original fatality rate. Nevertheless, South Ossetian officials said 1,492 people died.
According to the testimonies of eye-witnesses, massive missile and bomb strikes by the Russian aircraft caused the bulk of the damage during the fighting in South Ossetia and Tskhinvali was shelled by Russian Grad MRLRs. One analyst suggested that Russia was responsible for the deaths of at least half of casualties in South Ossetia.
On 26 August 2008, Russian investigator claimed that proof of "genocide" of the South Ossetian people had been discovered. Aleksandr Bastrykin, the Head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, said that according to the witnesses, Georgian military used grenades against civilian sheltered in basements. He also claimed that "hundreds of houses" were obliterated by Georgians and a pregnant woman shot in the head had been found. Bastrykin claimed in early September that while so far only 134 civilian casualties had been documented, such low number did not mean that genocide did not happen. In August 2009, it was announced that the investigation of the "genocide" was extended until February 2010.
Hostages On 18 August 2008, the South Ossetians alleged that Georgian troops had abducted 500 Ossetian persons from Tskhinvali. The Georgian government responded that they did not have any Ossetian in detention. By 20 August, the South Ossetian estimate was scaled down to some 170 "peaceful citizens" allegedly held by Georgia.
Georgians Bombings On 9 August 2008, Russian warplanes dropped bombs on Gori and residential premises were damaged. Civilians were killed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Georgian shelling of Russian peacekeepers and civilian population warranted Russian air raids on Georgia. On 12 August 2008, the central square was bombed in Gori after the Georgian military had left Gori on 11 August. The bombing killed civilians, among them a Dutch journalist, and wounded Israeli journalist. This cluster bombing of Gori killed at least eight civilians and wounded dozens. The cluster attack on the Georgian town of Ruisi, located in the Kareli Municipality, on the same day claimed the lives of three civilians and injured five. It was the first time the weapons of such type were used since Israel had used them in the 2006 Lebanon War. The Gori Military Hospital carrying Red Cross flag was struck by a rocket.
On 15 August 2008, Human Rights Watch said it had collected proof of Russian warplanes using RBK-250 cluster bombs; rights group urged Russia to halt using the prohibited weapons. Russian General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn responded to the report by rejecting the Russian usage of cluster bombs because "There is no need to do so." Georgian doctors in Tbilisi treated the victims of cluster bombing. On 21 August 2008, HRW reported that unexploded cluster munitions were left in Gori Municipality; civilians continued to be killed and injured due to contact with unexploded cluster munitions long after the original bombings. Russia denied using cluster bombs, in spite of overwhelming proof.
On 28 August, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme UNOSAT published report on an initial damage assessment on 19 August, based on satellite images of Gori. Total number of buildings that were classified as affected by Russian air raid, was 33, of which 18 were destroyed, and 15 were severely damaged. The UNOSAT report does not specify whether the damage was inflicted to military or civilian buildings.
Displacement of civilians
According to one estimate, the pre-war population of ethnic Georgians living in South Ossetia was 18,000 people. This represented up to one quarter of South Ossetia's population.
On 10 August 2008, Georgia charged that ethnic cleansing of Georgians was occurring behind Russian lines. The Georgian villages located south of Tskhinvali underwent the bombardment before the Russian advance. Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili commented on Russian "rampage" on 13 August: "What we are seeing is classic Balkan-type and WWII-type ethnic cleansing and purification campaigns." On 15 August, the UNHCR said that according to Georgia, up to 15,000 ethnic Georgians had departed South Ossetia for the rest of Georgia. As of 15 August 2008, some 73,000 uprooted people were present in Georgia proper. By 17 August 2008, many refugees in Tbilisi were jammed into provisional dwellings lacking any utilities and had no belongings with them, except the clothing on them. On 19 August, The Guardian commented on the situation north of Gori that the ethnic cleansing was "strikingly apparent". On 20 August 2008, Alexander Kvitashvili, Georgian minister for health, estimated that the war forced about 128,000 Georgian civilians (both in South Ossetia and Georgia proper) to flee their homes.
On 15 August, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity, in the interview for Kommersant, officially confirmed that the alleged ethnic cleansing of South Ossetia was in fact committed against ethnic Georgians. He also said the Ossetians were not going to permit them to come back. South Ossetian leader said that the majority of the Georgian-controlled villages "had been virtually flattened."