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A Russian fighter jet has shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane as it flew over the breakaway region of Abkhazia, Georgia’s air force commander said. The two countries’ presidents discussed the incident by telephone Monday in what Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili termed a ‘difficult conversation’. Col. David Nairashvili, Georgia’s air force commander, told The Associated Press that the video footage recorded by the plane before it was shot down Sunday shows the attacking jet to be Russian. The footage, which was shown to AP, showed 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. Georgia protested to the United Nations about the incident and the Security Council scheduled a meeting Wednesday to discuss it. Georgia’s Foreign Minister David Bakradze is expected to attend. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that “we did not object to having a meeting ... and we’ll have things to say at that meeting as well.” Nairashvili said the plane’s distinctive twin-tail markings indicate it is a MiG-29 and radar shows it took off from the Abkhazian town of Gudauta, the former site of a Russian military base. “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 announced it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to lodge a protest. Russian Defense Ministry officials directed all comments to a spokesman for Russia’s joint chiefs of staff, Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, who could not be immediately located for comment. However, the Interfax news agency quoted him as denying any involvement by Russian air force jets, saying Sunday was a day of rest for Russian pilots. Abkhazian Deputy Defense Minister Garry Kupalba also disputed Georgia’s account. He said the spy plane was shot down by one of its L-39 jet, which the Abkhazian military has several of. He accused Georgia of violating UN resolutions regarding Abkhazia. Kupalba identified the unmanned plane as an Israeli-made Hermes 450 plane and said it was identical to a Georgian one that was shot down by Abkhazian forces on March 18. Remnants of the spy plane were found over the Black Sea as well as the Gali district, which borders Georgia. The TV footage provided by Georgia clearly shows a jet with twin-tail construction - something that makes MiG jets distinctive and makes it impossible to confuse with the single-tail construction of the L-39. Tensions have grown between the Abkhazia and Georgian governments since Abkhazia in February formally appealed for the world community to recognize it as independent. The Abkhazian parliament cited Kosovo’s declaration of independence as a precedent. (AP) |
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