Today a telephone conversation took place between the President of Republic of South Ossetia and the President of Republic of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh. The Presidents discussed the current situation around the Republics.
According to a source in the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, yesterday’s incident with Georgian military helicopter was prearranged by the Minister of Defense of Georgia Irakli Okruashvili.
According to the announcement of the JPKF Deputy Commander Captain Vladimir Ivanov, on 3rd September 2006 at 15:37 the air space of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone was violated by Georgian military helicopter Mi-8 that was proceeding from south-east to north-west above villages Abano-Balta-Vakhtana and went deeper over a distance of 7 kilometers.
On September 3, 2006 at 15:40 the air space of the Republic of South Ossetia was again violated. The helicopter proceeding from the territory of Georgia ignored repeated requests and demands to change the course or to land. When the helicopter opened an aimed fire from a machine-gun, it was fired back by the South Ossetian subdivision.