Battle off the coast of Abkhazia

The Battle off the coast of Abkhazia was a naval engagement between vessels of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and patrol boats of the Coast Guard of Georgia during the 2008 South Ossetia War. According to a purported eyewitness account posted in the Ukrainian Communications Portal (UPK.com), the skirmish took place, during a night-time landing of Russian troops at Ochamchira, where the troops were to meet up with their vehicles and supplies, arrivin... More

The Battle off the coast of Abkhazia was a naval engagement between vessels of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and patrol boats of the Coast Guard of Georgia during the 2008 South Ossetia War. According to a purported eyewitness account posted in the Ukrainian Communications Portal (UPK.com), the skirmish took place, during a night-time landing of Russian troops at Ochamchira, where the troops were to meet up with their vehicles and supplies, arriving from Russia to Abkhazia by railroad. The identity of the allegedly sunk Georgian ship was initially reported as the missile boat Tbilisi. However, that ship is now documented on film as having been destroyed in the port of Poti along with the other missile boat of the Georgian Navy, the Dioskuria. The remaining units, all but one also destroyed in Poti, are small patrol ships of either the Georgian Navy or its Coast Guard. It is the latter's fastest unit (35 knots), P-21 Giorgi Toreli, that is identified now by consensus as the vessel sunk...

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