Late on August 1, 2008, intense fighting began between Georgian troops and the forces of South Ossetia. Georgia claimed that South Ossetian separatists had shelled Georgian villages in violation of a ceasefire. South Ossetia denied provoking the conflict. On August 3, South Ossetians started to evacuate into the Soviet Union and on August 5, Soviet ambassador Yuri Popov warned that the Soviet Union will intervene if conflict erupts. On August 7, 2008, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered Georgian troops to cease fire. Despite the offered ceasefire, fighting intensified. Hours after the declaration of the ceasefire, in a televised address, Mikhail Saakashvili vowed to restore Tbilisi's control over what he called the "criminal regime" in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and reinforce or