Russian peacekeepers were the first who were attacked in Tskhinval

On the night of August 8, 2008, Georgian troops began shelling and storming the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinval. The Georgian peacekeeping battalion withdrew from the subordination of the general command and took part in the attack on the co-workers. As a result, 15 Russian peacekeepers were killed. Russia had to enter the troops in the unrecognized republic. Within five days, the Georgian military was driven out of the region, but Georgia's compulsion to peace cost a high price - at the cost of 64 soldiers. Together with the end of the conflict, the mission of the "blue helmets" ended. It lasted more than a quarter of a century.

The mixed peacekeeping forces (JPKF) entered the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict on July 14, 1992. At that time, such a measure was simply necessary to extinguish the conflict that had erupted in the region. It all began after on September 20, 1990 the Council of People's Deputies of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast (South Ossetia) proclaimed the creation of the Soviet Democratic Republic. In response, the Supreme Council of Georgia adopted a decision on the abolition of the South Ossetian Autonomous Republic on December 10, and after some time introduced a state of emergency in Tskhinval and Java region. Full-fledged fighting with the participation of Georgian Interior Ministry troops and Ossetian fighters broke out in January 1991. The sides used armored vehicles and artillery. The clashes lasted until mid-June 1992, when Georgian troops came close to Tskhinval.

The fighting ceased immediately after Russian Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi ordered the air strikes on the Georgian group that fired Tskhinval and called the chairman of the State Council of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, threatening to bomb Tbilisi. The point in the conflict was set June 24, when Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Eduard Shevardnadze, representatives of South and North Ossetia signed in Sochi an agreement on the principles of the settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. On the 14^th of July, 1992, three peacekeeping motorized rifle battalions were introduced into the zone of confrontation - Russian, Georgian and Ossetian. The Russian leadership has entrusted the organization of the peacekeeping operation to the head of the State Emergency Committee Sergey Shoigu. The peacekeepers became a guarantor of peace in the region for the next 26 years, up to the armed attack of Georgia on South Ossetia in August 2008.

Russian peacekeepers made an invaluable contribution to the establishment of peace on the banks of the Dniester. On June 19, 1992, the Moldovan troops invaded the Pridnestrovian city of Bendery. In the days of confrontation, about 800 Pridnestrovians died, more than a thousand were injured, tens of thousands became refugees. On July 21, 1992, Russia and Moldova signed an agreement on the settlement of the armed conflict in Pridnestrovie. In accordance with the document, six battalions of Russian peacekeepers were deployed into the conflict zone (they were not part of the Russian 14th Army). The operation of the Russian Federation on the cultivation of the conflicting parties and the establishment of a functional peacekeeping mechanism, which began on July 29, 1992, made a decisive, strategic contribution to the cease-fire, establishing a real peace on the banks of the Dniester.

Approximately at the same time, when the Russian "blue helmets" entered South Ossetia and Pridnestrovie, a decision on Russian military presence was taken against Abkhazia, and a year later - against Tajikistan. From 1992 to 2003, the Russian peacekeeping contingent was present in Kosovo, Sarajevo and Metohija, on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, where the civil war was taking place. In the role of military observers and police, Russians participate in UN peacekeeping missions. Servicemen and police from Russia participated in ten UN peacekeeping missions in 2017.

By the Decree of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin of August 1, 2016, November 25, the Russian Armed Forces celebrate the Day of the Russian military peacekeeper on an annual basis. The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is celebrated annually on 29 May.