Three years ago, on Aug. 7, Russian and Georgia clashed in what came to be known as the August War. U.S. photographer Jared Moossy was on the ground in Georgia and the disputed territory of South Ossetia at the time, and captured both the immediate invasion and its disastrous effect on the local population.

Russian soldiers parade around Gori, Georgia, in their tanks in a show of force after entering Georgian territory on Aug. 17, 2008.

Russian soldiers loiter around the municipal building in Gori before setting up checkpoints on the city's edge to prevent residents and Georgian soldiers from entering the city on Aug. 17, 2008.

A Gori resident prays and weeps as he returns to his home destroyed by Russian shelling on Aug. 17, 2008.

Georgian residents wait at a Russian blockade to see when they will be granted permission to enter the city and return to their homes to gather their belongings on Aug. 14, 2008.

A woman weeps in the hallway of her destroyed apartment complex in the breakaway region of South Ossetia on Aug. 21, 2008.

A destroyed building in Gori on Aug. 17, 2008. Russian forces were still occupying the city despite a ceasefire agreement requiring them to pull out.

Doctors at the Hospital Republic in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, frantically work on a Georgian soldier who was shot in the lung on Aug. 17, 2008.

In Tbilisi's Hospital Republic, X-rays show the bullet lodged in a Georgian soldier's lung on Aug. 17, 2008.

Funeral for a Georgian soldier killed in Gori. Sheklashvili Ilia, 25, was killed during the initial Russian invasion. His comrades hold his photograph and give their last prayers for their fallen friend in Tbilisi on Aug. 19, 2008.

Russian soldiers listen to an orchestral concert organized by the Russian government in the capital of South Ossetia to boost morale on Aug. 21, 2008.

Russian soldiers at a blockade prevent residents, press, and soldiers from entering Gori on Aug. 17, 2008.

Russian tanks in South Ossetia against a bullet-riddled wall on Aug. 21, 2008.