Abkhazian Military Hardware Used in The Spy Plane Shootdowns
Both Abkhazia and Russia claim that the April 20 spy plane was downed by an Abkhazian L-39 aircraft.
On May 6, Abkhazian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Shamba declared that a Buk ground-to-air air defence system had been used in the downing of the Georgian spy planes. This was the first time that Abkhazian authorities officially acknowledged that Abkhazia military possessed this advanced anti-aircraft system.
According to Shamba, the Buk system was a leftover from the 1992-1993 war with Georgia.
Georgian authorities had claimed earlier that Buk systems had been transferred from Russia to Abkhazia in 2007 as part of a larger package of military support.
In response to Shamba's statement Georgian officials declared that the fact that Abkhazia possessed Buk systems constituted a violation of existing agreements. In a statement the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on UNOMIG “to urgently launch probing into the presence of anti-aircraft defense systems and their use in Abkhazia and to immediately acquaint the international community with the results of this probe.”
Read more about this topic: 2008 Georgian Spy Plane Shootdowns
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