KIEV, Aug. 12 – In an unprecedented move, leaders of five countries, led by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Tuesday traveled thousands kilometers across a war zone to Tbilisi to show support for Georgia, which is battling invading Russian troops.

The presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and the prime minister of Latvia, joined Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili at a downtown Tbilisi square to address a 200,000-strong rally.

“We had a very hard trip, but we knew that we must be here today,” Yushchenko said addressing the rally. “We are here today to say the following: Georgia is our friend, the Georgians are the friends of us.”

The trip, which included the leaders boarding the same plane in Simferopol, Ukraine, landing at a small airfield in Azerbaijan and later traveling in a convoy to Tbilisi, had apparently been organized by Yushchenko.

He made more than 20 phone calls to his counterparts across Europe since Saturday to drum up support for Georgia as the crisis had escalated.

“The freedom is worth fighting for,” Yushchenko said to the crowd. “We must always remember that the Georgian nation should be independent. We arrived here to confirm your sovereignty, your independence and your territorial integrity. These are our values.”

Georgia, along with Ukraine, is a key partner in a regional alliance that is being created to counterbalance Russia’s assertive regional influence and energy monopoly.

Georgia and Ukraine host oil pipelines that are supposed to be used for channeling Caspian Sea crude from Azerbaijan - bypassing Russia - to the European Union, including to Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.

A Georgian official said Saturday that a Russian plane had tried to hit the oil pipeline, but missed. The Russian military denied targeting oil pipelines, but has been striking other infrastructure targets, such as a sea port, briges and roads in Georgia.

Yushchenko’s trip comes as Ukraine on Monday ruled out an immediate military assistance to Georgia, instead focusing on “political” and “humanitarian” support.

The pledge showed that Ukraine, the key supplier of weapons to Georgia, will probably suspend the supplies until the crisis in the region eases.

The five leaders, including Yushchneko, Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis, were later supposed to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Tbilisi.

Sarkozy, who has been mediating with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his patron Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow on behalf of the European Union, was supposed to arrive to Tbilisi later on Tuesday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that Russia is ending its current military operation against Georgian forces because it has achieved its goals. But he stopped short of saying Russia would withdraw its troops from Georgia.

"The goals of the operation have been achieved," Medvedev said. "The safety of our peacekeepers and the civilian population have been restored."

But Medvedev also said that Russia still reserves the right to renew attacks if it encounters Georgian resistance or fighting. (tl/ez)