Thirty-four years ago, on 24 June 1992, in Dagomys, near the city of Sochi, the Agreement on the Principles of the Settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian Conflict was signed. That event was the outcome of intense diplomatic efforts undertaken amid the acute phase of the confrontation.
It was on the basis of that document that, on 14 July 1992, the peacekeeping operation was launched. The Joint Peacekeeping Forces, comprising Russian, Ossetian and Georgian battalions, were deployed to the conflict zone. The Sochi Agreements recognised the international legal status of all parties to the conflict, including Georgia and South Ossetia, thereby making it possible to halt active hostilities and to establish a fragile peace.
The signing of the Agreement constituted an important milestone that made it possible to avert further escalation and created a platform for the pursuit of peaceful solutions. The peace, however, proved short-lived. In 2004, the Saakashvili regime made its first attempt at a forcible resolution of the "Ossetian question." The final blow to the peace process was dealt on the night of 7–8 August 2008, when the Georgian army attacked Tskhinval and the Russian peacekeepers, thereby negating many years of efforts to settle the conflict.
Today, as we recall these events, we pay tribute to all those who strove for peace, who worked on that Agreement and who took part in the peacekeeping mission.
24 June 2026