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Russia says rebels downed plane | Russia says rebels downed plane |
(41 minutes later) | |
Russian authorities have said that Abkhaz rebels shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane over the breakaway region of Abkhazia. | Russian authorities have said that Abkhaz rebels shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane over the breakaway region of Abkhazia. |
The Russian foreign ministry also said the flight breached a 1994 peace accord which ended fighting in the province. | |
Georgia insists a Russian plane shot down the drone on Sunday, calling it an act of "open aggression". | |
The country's defence ministry has released footage showing what seems to be a Russian MiG-29 shooting the drone. | |
The video, shot from the drone moments before impact, shows a jet launching a missile over what appears to be the Black Sea. | |
'Evidence' | |
"We have hard evidence proving that this is the Russian military aircraft shooting down Georgian UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle]," Temu Iakobashvili, the Georgian minister in charge of the breakaway regions, told the Associated Press news agency. | |
But in a statement, Russia's foreign ministry said the drone was shot down by Abkhaz anti-aircraft weapons. | |
Abkhazia's separatist administration has said its own forces shot down the drone because it was violating Abkhaz airspace and breaching ceasefire agreements. | |
Tensions are high between the Russia and Georgia over Russian support for Abkhazia and another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia. | |
Russian and UN peacekeepers have been deployed in the two regions since the early 1990s, when violence erupted as they broke free from Georgian control. | |
Tbilisi believes Moscow is fuelling the separatist conflict in Abkhazia to maintain Russian influence in the region and to damage Georgia's hopes of joining Nato. | |
Last week, Georgia accused Russia of trying to annex Abkhazia and South Ossetia by deciding to seek closer ties with them. |