GORI, Georgia - Embattled Georgian troops pulled out of the disputed province of South Ossetia on Sunday, submitting to Russia's far superior firepower, as international envoys headed in to try to end fighting between Russia and its tiny U.S.-allied neighbor.
The retreat came after Russia expanded its bombing blitz Sunday, targeting Georgia's capital for the first time and driving Georgian troops out of South Ossetia's provincial capital of Tskhinvali with heavy shelling.
Georgia's Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said Georgian troops had relocated to new positions outside South Ossetia. "They are outside the region entirely," he said in a telephone conference.
About 50 ambulances rushed to whisk away wounded Georgian soldiers from a military hospital in Gori, a town just outside South Ossetia, to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.
Georgia also won sudden support from Ukraine, which warned Russia it has the right to bar a Russia's Black Sea squadron, which aimed to block shipments to Georgia, from returning to Ukraine until the conflict ends.
Georgia, whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, began an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes that pounded Tskhinvali.
In response, Russia, which has granted passports to most South Ossetians, launched overwhelming artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops.
Georgia borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia and was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Both South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, have run their own affairs without international recognition since fighting to split from Georgia in the early 1990s.
Both separatist provinces have close ties with Moscow, while Georgia has deeply angered Russia by wanting to join NATO.
Russian warplanes have raided Georgian air bases, oil sites and other facilities since Friday. On Sunday, they struck an aircraft-making plant on the outskirts of the Georgian capital. The attack inflicted some damage to the plant's runways but caused no casualties, according to Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili.
"We heard a plane go over and then a big explosion," said Malkhaz Chachanidze, an artist who lives next to factory. "It woke us up, everything shook."
Lomaia said the Georgian troops had to move out of South Ossetia because of heavy Russian shelling. "Russia further escalated its aggression overnight, using weapons on unprecedented scale," Lomaia said.
Lomaia said the Georgians hoped the pullout would be the first step toward a truce. "We communicated that message beforehand to the Russians through (U.S. Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice," he said.
Russia said it wants Georgia to first pull its troops from South Ossetia and sign a pledge not to use force against the breakaway province. But Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said that Moscow needs to verify the Georgian claims of withdrawal.
"We must check all that. We don't trust the Georgian side," he said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meeting Saturday with South Ossetia refugees who had fled across the border to the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, described Georgia's actions as "complete genocide." Putin also said Georgia had lost the right to rule the breakaway province