EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) has called on Russia “to withdraw its units from the Perevi checkpoint and the Perevi village without delay.”

“Today, a EUMM patrol could verify that Russian troops have reoccupied the Perevi checkpoint in Georgia, near the administrative boundary line of South Ossetia, and even deployed a considerable number of troops in and around the village of Perevi. This less then a day after the Russian military having evacuated the checkpoint,” EUMM said in a statement released late afternoon on December 13.

It said that “the renewed Russian military occupation” of Perevi “is incompatible with the provisions of the Sarkozy-Medvedev peace plan.”

EU monitors also said that the Russian military in Perevi had hindered a number of EU ambassadors from visiting the village.

“Restricting the freedom of movement of ambassadors in a foreign country is unacceptable under all relevant instruments of international law,” EUMM said.

On December 12, after the Russian troops pulled back from the village, the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) welcomed the move and head of the mission, Hansjörg Haber, said: “The Russian forces in South Ossetia have for a long time refused to dismantle this checkpoint, in spite of clear evidence that it was situated to the west of the administrative boundary line of South Ossetia. But the insistence of the EU Presidency and of the EUMM on the ground has borne fruit.”