The Russo-Georgian War had a huge humanitarian impact on the lives of civilians. In the aftermath of the war, ethnic Georgians were expelled from South Ossetia and most of the Georgian villages were razed.
South Ossetians
Tskhinvali
Russian media reported on 9 August that several journalists had gone into hiding as they appealed to the international community for right of passage.
According to later Russian statements, about 20 percent of Tskhinvali's some 7,000 buildings had been damaged and 10 percent were "beyond repair".
HRW entered the mostly deserted Tskhinvali on 13 August 2008 and reported that apartment buildings and houses had damaged by shelling. They also reported that buildings had been damaged by "inherently indiscriminate" artillery which should not be used on populated areas. For example, rockets most likely fired from BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers.
Refugees
On 10 August 2008, HRW got numbers of displaced people counted by the Russian government agency in Vladikavkaz, according to which, the Federal Migration Service counted 24,032 persons who fled South Ossetia to Russia. On 16 August 2008, ITAR-TASS put the number of refugees at over 10,000 refugees.
Casualties
On 8 August 2008, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged the combatants to form a humanitarian corridor in South Ossetia to evacuate the wounded civilians.
On 13 August Human Rights Watch said that deliberate attempts by the Russian government to exaggerate the number of casualties in the conflict provoked revenge attacks on Georgian villagers in South Ossetia.
According to a doctor at Tskhinvali hospital, the hospital treated 273 military and civilian wounded from 6 to 12 August. According to a later report by the Russian blogger, he asked the same doctor: "Could there possibly be 2,000 dead?" The doctor answered him: "If you’re counting the entire district, then yes."
On 20 August, following an investigation in South Ossetia and amongst refugees, the number of dead civilians identified was put by Russia at 133; nevertheless, South Ossetian officials said 1,492 people died.
On 21 August 2008, Russia scaled down its estimate of the number of killed South Ossetian civilians, admitting that the toll could be about a tenth of its first claims.
Hostages
By 20 August the South Ossetian estimate was scaled down to some 170 "peaceful citizens" allegedly held by Georgia.
Georgians
Bombings
On 9 August 2008, Russian jets bombed Gori. The bombs hit residential buildings. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Georgia brought the airstrikes upon itself by bombing civilians and Russian peacekeepers. On 12 August 2008, an attack on the main square in Gori killed dozens of civilians, including a Dutch journalist.
On 16 August 2008, Human Rights Watch said it had collected evidence of Russian warplanes using RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions; rights group urged Russia to stop using the weapons, which more than 100 nations have agreed to outlaw. When asked about the report, Russian General Anatoly Nogovitsyn claimed: "We never use cluster bombs. There is no need to do so." On 22 August 2008, HRW reported that unexploded cluster munitions were left in Gori and at other locations.
Displacement of civilians
Before the war started, one estimate of the population of ethnic Georgians living in South Ossetia was 18,000 people, up to one quarter of the population. On 10 August 2008, Georgia charged that ethnic cleansing of Georgians was occurring behind Russian lines. On 15 August, UNHCR said that according to Georgian officials, up to 15,000 ethnic Georgians had fled into the other parts of Georgia from South Ossetia. As of 15 August 2008, some 73,000 people were displaced in Georgia proper. On 17 August 2008, The Independent reported that many refugees from South Ossetia in Tbilisi were crammed into makeshift centres without basic amenities and had no possessions with them, except the clothes they were wearing when they fled. By 19 August, the UNHCR figure of the displaced persons rose to 158,600. On 20 August, The Guardian reported that "The scale of ethnic cleansing in the district nine miles north of Gori was strikingly apparent". Kokoity said most of the Georgian villages "had been virtually flattened."
Russian soldiers allegedly told the Georgians in Gori: "Putin has given us an order that everyone must be either shot or forced to leave". HRW documented several cases in which Russian occupying forces opened fire on civilian vehicles in Gori district, killing or wounding civilians.