‘It’s better not to try our luck again’: how Russia’s wars left deep scars in Georgia and Moldova

A woman holds her baby outside her destroyed home in Gori after Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008. Photograph: David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters

Lately, Levan cannot stop thinking about the time he saw Russian tanks roll into his hometown of Gori, an hour’s drive from Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi.

In 2008, Gori was one of the places Moscow bombed and occupied during a short and deadly war that left 20% of the country – though not the city – under de-facto Russian control.