The number of violations on the state border of South Ossetia with Georgia has increased since the previous meeting in the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism format, .the head of the South Ossetian delegation represented in this format, Egor Kochiev, told reporters after the meeting held within the framework of the IPRM in the village of Ergnet
“At the previous meeting, we noted a trend towards a decrease in the number of violations at the border. Unfortunately, it has not been preserved - since February 13, there were quite a lot of violations on the part of Georgia, including by the Georgian police. There were cases when they entered the territory of South Ossetia up to 10 meters and came back out,” Kochiev has emphasized.
According to him, the delegation of the Republic of South Ossetia pointed out to the Georgian party that such facts of violation of the state border were inadmissible.
“In addition, it is unacceptable for members of the EU observer mission to be in close proximity to the border. We once again explained to all the parties that the presence of a sanitary fence, as it is sometimes called, a border fence, is not a border crossing line,” the head of the delegation said.
He has added that in some sections of the border this fence is located from 10 to 50 meters deep into the territory of South Ossetia.
“These are our technical facilities for the arrangement of the state border, and they need to be maintained. And so that during the service on both sides the staff does not violate the border, a deviation from the border line is made," Kochiev has noted.
Kochiev has added that one case of airspace violation by a drone was also recorded.
“The hotline was activated by the Georgian side; they claimed that the device had flown in from the territory of South Ossetia. The fact is that when we transmit such information, we schedule minute by minute the flight direction, course, altitude and the fact that it departed in the opposite direction, which was not done by the Georgian side,” he said.
Kochiev noted that this could mean that the drone was the Georgian one.
“It crossed the border from the Georgian territory and was returning back. It was not in the airspace of South Ossetia for long and did not fly deep into the country. It did not cause any damage to the Republic,” the head of the delegation has clarified.
