TBILISI. Aug 14 (Interfax-AVN) - A Russian-made aircraft violated Georgian airspace on August 6 and launched an air-to-ground missile near the village of Tsitelubani, says a statement by the permanent OSCE mission in Georgia published on Tuesday.
Data obtained from Georgian radars show that "the aircraft violated Georgian airspace from the direction of Russia and flew back in a northeasterly direction after the missile was dropped," the document says.
The August 6 incident is not a unique case, the mission reported. "According to the a joint military and civil radar, a Sukhoi-24 aircraft violated the Georgian-Russian border and penetrated Georgia's airspace several times on August 5, the day before the incident," the statement says.
Russian peacekeepers say the aircraft that allegedly bombed Georgian territory left South Ossetia heading for Georgia.
"Russian peacekeepers once again monitored the area outside the villages of Gromi and Tsolda on August 10-11 to check Georgia's claims that a Russian airplane violated Georgia's airspace and dropped a missile on August 6. It has been established that the aircraft in question crossed the border at the northern section and after maneuvering headed in the southwestern direction toward Georgia, not toward Russia," Yury Vereshchak, aide to the commander of the Combined Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgia-South Ossetian conflict zone, earlier told Interfax-AVN.