OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged all democratic countries Thursday to speak out strongly against the "Soviet-era mentality" displayed in Russia's military aggression against Georgia.
Russian forces invaded Georgia with tanks and air strikes over the weekend. They were responding to Georgian attacks on rebels in the tiny breakaway province of South Ossetia. Like Abkhazia, another separatist region, South Ossetia has a large population of ethnic Russians.
Late on Thursday it was announced that Canada is pulling out of a joint NORAD-Russian exercise to protest Russia's occupation of the region.
The U.S. made the same announcement earlier Thursday.
Also Thursday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he was "extremely concerned" about the situation in Georgia as aid workers struggled to help the growing number of people displaced by the conflict with Russia.
A truce between the two sides had failed to open up the conflict zone to much-needed emergency supplies, EU and aid officials said, as United Nations staff in the Georgian city of Gori were held up by gunmen.
"The Secretary General is extremely concerned by the impact of the recent conflict on the civilian population in Georgia, which has suffered loss of life and injury, significant damage to civilian property and infrastructure, as well as sizeable displacement," Ban's office said in a statement.
He reiterated "the critical importance of safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian actors to all conflict-affected areas."
Latest estimates by the Georgian and Russian governments put the number of displaced people in the region at nearly 115,000.