In 2008, tensions between Georgia and Russia rose steadily and during the summer artillery fire was exchanged across the South Ossetian border. On August 7th the Georgian military launched an assault on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, claiming that they were forestalling a Russian invasion. In the event, a massive Russian invasion soon followed, and the Georgians were not only driven from Tskhinvali, but lost control of the approaches to Abkhazia and, for a time, large swaths of its own northern territory.