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De facto Tskhinvai officials say Tbilisi fired on unmanned aerial vehicle

Russia occupied two Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) in 2008. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge

Agenda.ge, 01 Sep 2019 - 15:52, Tbilisi,Georgia

The de facto “security committee” of Russia-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region announced that at around 10 a.m. this morning, fire was opened on their unmanned aerial vehicle from the Tbilisi-controlled Khashuri Municipality.

The “security committee” said that in the morning of September 1 the quadrocopter of the region's “security structures” carrying out “humanitarian operation to ensure safety" of local population, provided video surveillance along what they call “a state border”.

Calling this incident “a direct provocation” from Tbilisi aimed to “escalate yet another armed conflict” with Tskhinvali region, de facto "security committee" said the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) has been informed.

The EUMM-facilitated Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was disrupted on August 29 as de facto South Ossetian officials left the meeting in protest after Tbilisi refused to dismantle the police checkpoint near the village of Chorchana, close to occupied village of Tsnelisi, which Tskhinvali calls Uista.

Georgian officials unanimously said the police checkpoint will not be dismantled. In response Tskhinvali announced of launching a "humanitarian operation" in Tsnelisi.

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