Ebru News | Conflict between Russia and Georgia

Conflict between Russia and Georgia

A Russian fighter jet has shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane as it flew over the breakaway region of Abkhazia. Georgia says it has summoned Russia's ambassador to protest over the shooting down of its plane.

21
Apr
2008

(Ebru News/AP) A Russian fighter jet has shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane as it flew over the breakaway region of Abkhazia. Georgia says it has summoned Russia's ambassador to protest over the shooting down of its plane.

Colonel David Nairashvili said that the video footage recorded by the plane before it was shot down on Sunday shows a Russian MiG-29 attacking it.

The Russian Defence Ministry denied that Russia's air force planes were involved in the alleged shooting down of an unmanned Georgian air force jet.

The footage shows an aircraft firing a missile in the direction of a plane and a few seconds later the screen goes blank.

The incident occurred over Abkhazia, a region that has had de-facto independence since breaking away from the Georgian government in the 1990s.

Colonel David Nairashvili, Georgia's air force commander:
"It's a Russian aircraft. Georgia does not possess it, nor do Abkhaz separatists," he said. "It's absolutely illegal for a Russian MiG-29 to be there."

Georgia's UN Ambassador Irakli Alasania called on the United Nations "to address this direct military aggression against Georgia and fully exploit its own means and capabilities in order to keep the situation from further escalation."

The UN Security Council voted unanimously last Tuesday to extend the UN observer mission in Georgia, as the United States and Russia sparred over Abkhazia.

Ebru TV