MOSCOW, January 24 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia has resumed Russian gas transits to South Ossetia suspended before a five-day war between Moscow and Tbilisi in August, a source in the South Ossetian government told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

The source said that gas had started flowing though a gas distribution station in the republic.

"It is planned that the gas will reach Tskhinvali tomorrow," the source said.

Georgia cut off gas deliveries to its breakaway republic in August stating that a section of the pipeline in South Ossetia had been damaged. With winter closing in Moscow suggested Georgia was falsely claiming the pipeline had been damaged to avoid sending gas to South Ossetia.

Georgia's deputy energy minister, Nino Enukidze, announced on January 22 that gas supplies could be resumed in the near future to South Ossetia.

Two weeks after the end of the conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebel region, as independent states.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia split from Georgia in the early 1990s, and most residents of both republics have had Russian citizenship for a number of years. Moscow and Tbilisi have not had direct diplomatic relations since.