Ukraine said on Wednesday it wanted to discuss charging Russia more for the lease of a Black Sea naval base, a move that could aggravate regional tensions already enflamed by Moscow's conflict with Georgia.
As the U.S. Navy shipped in humanitarian supplies to Georgia, Russia said its navy was watching "the build-up of NATO forces in the Black Sea area" and had started taking measures to monitor their activity.
Georgia recalled all but two of its diplomats from Moscow in protest after Russia recognised its rebel South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions as independent and President Mikheil Saakashvili urged the West to uphold international law.
"Russia clearly intended this as a blatant challenge to world order. It's now up to all of us to roll Russian aggression back. If they get away with this, they will carry on ... they will also attack other countries in the neighbourhood," Saakashvili told Reuters in an interview.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, current president of the European Union, called on Moscow to comply immediately with his peace plan for Georgia, signed by Russia.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev Russia's presence in Georgia's port of Poti and other areas outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia were "a grave violation" of the French-brokered ceasefire, her spokesman said.
It allows Russia to station troops inside Georgia proper but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was ready to pull them back after an international monitoring mechanism was in place there.
"We will be ready to make decisions, including in the United Nations...on additional increases in the number of international monitors, clarifying their mandate and possibly other steps with international participation," he said in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe.
Despite the avalanche of international criticism, Moscow signalled it was relaxed about being the only country to recognise the rebel Georgian regions and ruled out putting pressure on its allies to follow its example.
"To initiate wide support (for recognition) is not a primary goal," of Russian foreign policy, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, told reporters. "We're not going to twist anyone's hands to make them support (recognition)."
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Medvedev had a big responsibility not to start a new Cold War.
"Russia has not reconciled itself to the new map of this new region...We do not want a new Cold War and he (Medvedev) has a big responsibility not to start one," Miliband told a group of students in Ukraine's capital, Kiev.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko joined Western nations in condemning the Russian move to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states under Moscow's protection.
"We are sorry about this decision, for Ukraine it is unacceptable and therefore we cannot support this position," he said in an interview with Reuters.
Yushchenko said Kiev wanted to raise the question of increasing Russia's rent on its Sevastopol base in Ukraine's Crimea region, the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet.
Russia has said any renegotiation would break a 1997 agreement between the two countries, under which it currently leases the base for $98 million a year until 2017.
The deputy head of Russia's General Staff told a news briefing Moscow was sticking strictly to the current agreement, and accused NATO states of "racketing up tension" in the Black Sea by increasing their presence there.
"Now we have people flexing their muscles, demonstrating force ... We can only regret that," he said.
The United States did, however, avoid a possible direct confrontation with Russia by diverting a U.S. Coast Guard ship carrying post-war aid to Georgia from the Russian-patrolled port of Poti. U.S. officials did not explain the change of plan.
Russia's Medvedev has accused the United States of shipping weapons into Georgia, a remark the White House dismissed as "ridiculous", Reuters reported.