U.S. ship delivers aid to Georgian port

September 6, 2008

POTI, Georgia The flagship of the Navy's Mediterranean fleet anchored outside this key Georgian port yesterday, delivering humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged U.S. ally in a slap at Moscow. The USS Mount Whitney was the first Navy ship to travel to Poti since Georgia's five-day war with Russia last month. The continued presence of hundreds of Russian soldiers here has been a major point of friction between Russia and the West, which insists Moscow hasn't honored a cease-fire deal to pull back to positions held before fighting broke out Aug. 7. Two U.S. ships had already come and gone from Georgia carrying humanitarian aid, but they anchored at Batumi, a smaller port to the south with no Russian military presence. The confrontational anchorage at Poti came as Vice President Dick Cheney visited nearby Ukraine, another former Soviet republic that feels threatened by Moscow's military belligerence. Cheney pledged that the United States is committed to Ukraine's security and freedom and said Ukrainians should not be forced to live under a Russian "threat of tyranny, economic blackmail and military invasion."