SUKHUMI. May 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Vyacheslav Eshba, the new defense minister of the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia, is going to check "battle capacity of the country's air defense forces" during an upcoming exercise.
"An exercise of the republic's air defense forces will take place under my management in late May. It will allow us to check up the troops' battle capacity and give us the material for their strengthening," Eshba told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
Eshba was appointed defense minister on May 5. He replaced Raul Khadzhimba who had been promoted to the position of Abkhazia's prime minister.
The minister emphasized that "the exercise will take place outside the 12-kilometer safety zone dividing the Georgian and Abkhaz sides after the 1992-1993 conflict."
Eshba said that "the concept of the exercise has already been forwarded to its participants and its details are being specified by the General Staff."