The FINANCIAL — According to Civil Georgia, both Moscow and Sokhumi have claimed that the Abkhaz side shot down Georgia’s two unmanned reconnaissance drones on May 4. Tbilisi has strongly denied that and said it was “a provocation” aimed at “information-propagandistic support of Russia’s military intervention.”
Authorities in breakaway Abkhazia said their air defense downed one Georgian unmanned drone at about 4:06pm local time over the village of Dikhazurga of the Gali district and another one at about 4:51pm local time over the village of Bargebi district on the Abkhaz side of the administrative border.
Kristian Bzhania, the Abkhaz leader’s spokesman, said the Abkhaz armed forces were on high alert “because of serious increase in tensions,” the Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported.
Shortly after the report the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement describing downing of two Georgian drones, which it said were conducting “unauthorized flights” over Abkhazia, as “natural.”
It also said the recent incident demonstrated that Tbilisi had “ignored our warnings” about danger of violating provisions of the 1994 Moscow agreement on ceasefire and separation of forces. Moscow claims that flights of unmanned spy planes violate the agreement.
“Resorting to adventures with unmanned reconnaissance planes and speeding up of military preparations in the conflict zone, the authorities in Tbilisi have taken the path of deliberately escalating tension in the region,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Abkhaz side reported later on Sunday that it had found debris of the both downed drones.
Georgia, however, has strongly denied that its two drones were shot down on May 4.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the information is Russia’s yet another provocation, which aims at information-propagandistic support of Russia’s military intervention.”
The Georgian Foreign Ministry stressed in its statement that its Russian counterpart ministry described downing of the drones as “natural.”
“This indicates clearly that the Russian Federation’s so called peacekeeping operation, carried out under cover of the CIS, has in fact turned into fiction and it now represents nothing else but open military aggression against Georgia with an aim to annex part of its territory,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.
It has also said that Georgian Interior Ministry’s unarmed, unmanned reconnaissance drones “were flying, are flying and will continue flying over the Georgian sovereign airspace to gather full information about the Russian military intervention.”
Exactly two weeks ago a Georgian unmanned drone was shot down over Abkhazia. Initially Tbilisi denied that but one day later it retracted its denial and confirmed that its drone, Hermes 450, was shot down. Tbilisi claimed that Russian MIG-29 shot it down and released a video footage, transmitted from the drone’s on-board camera, showing twin-tail marking jet firing missile. Moscow has denied allegations and claimed the footage was made-up.
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