Georgia claims Russian spy drone destroyed
Georgia claimed to have shot down a Russian drone aircraft over its territory near the breakaway province of South Ossetia today.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said the pilotless aircraft was shot down near the central city of Gori.
Russia’s Defence Ministry dismissed the report as a ”provocation”.
Tensions remain high after last month’s war between Russia and Georgia. Moscow has kept nearly 8,000 troops in Georgia’s two separatist areas of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and plans to station them there indefinitely.
In addition, one Georgian police officer was killed and three others wounded at the weekend by separatist Abkhazian fighters. Another two Georgian officers were wounded yesterday when they went to the area to investigate and stepped on a land mine.
Russia has pledged to withdraw its forces from Georgian areas outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia once 200 European Union observers are in place. The EU mission is due to deploy by October 1.
Moscow has refused to let the EU monitors into Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which it recognised as independent nations after the war. It also prevented more monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe entering South Ossetia, the site of heavy looting and burning of Georgian homes.
