Georgia Says Russian Drone, Helicopter Violate Airspace
By Civil.Ge
(Civil.Ge) — A Russian drone and helicopter flew over the Georgian police posts in the vicinity of administrative boundary line with breakaway South Ossetia, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The Russian Defense Ministry has denied helicopter overflight in the area.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said that a Russian unmanned aerial vehicle “violated the airspace controlled by the Georgian central authorities” from the Russian “occupied” region of South Ossetia and flew over the checkpoints of the Georgian Interior Ministry in the villages of Koshka and Gugutiantkari in the Gori municipality at about 6:48pm local time on December 9.
On December 10 at about 12:48pm local time a Russian Mi-8 military helicopter intruded into the airspace controlled by the Georgian authorities and flew over a police station in the village of Mereti in the Gori municipality, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.
All three villages – Gugutiantkari, Koshka and Mereti, are located close to administrative boundary line with breakaway South Ossetia, east from Tskhinvali and north from Gori.
“These provocative acts, directed against the sovereign state, provide a further proof of the Russian Federation’s defiance of the fundamental norms and principles of international law,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement and called on Russia to comply with its commitments under the August, 2008 ceasefire agreement.
Russian news agencies reported quoting Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov: “Russian military helicopters have not made any flights over the territories adjacent to the Georgian border in recent days.”
He said that the allegation was based on “word of mouth from some local residents” and called on Georgia to study radar data before making “loud statemnets.”
