Georgian State Security Service Head pays tribute to Shindisi battle heroes

Grigol Liluashvili, the Head of the Georgian State Security Service, on Sunday paid tribute to the memory of the 17 servicemembers who had heroically sacrificed their lives in a battle in central Georgia’s Shindisi village during the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, the Service said.

In the battle, a 21-member detachment of Georgian soldiers came face-to-face with Russian troops in Shindisi on the fourth day of the conflict.

The Russian troops greatly outnumbered the Georgians and ordered them to surrender, but the latter refused, and during the unequal battle lasting for 45 minutes, 17 out of the 21 Georgian soldiers of the Infantry Brigade were killed.

The Russia-Georgia war lasted five days and claimed the lives of 228 Georgian civilians, 170 soldiers, and 14 police officers. 

The war displaced 192,000 people in Georgia, 26,000 of whom are still denied the right to return.