Kodori Gorge operation: Georgians fled with Kalashnikovs, abandoned American weapons

Грузины бежали с автоматами Калашникова, побросав американское оружие: операция в Кодорском ущелье

The United Nations Mission to Abkhazia was warned on August 8 about possible military operations and it was encouraged to remove its observers from the upper part of the Kodori Gorge. According to an IA Regnum correspondent, the statement was made at a press conference in Sokhumi by deputy minister of defense Garri Kupalba.

He also stated that when the military-political conditions were changing, the observers were made aware of the situation, but they, in Kupalba's opinion, did not evaluate the events objectively. "New York was not objectively informed of the events on the ground," he noted.

Kupalba himself called the operation in Kodori unique. In his words, many military experts are already expressing interest in it, and this, he noted, is not because of the number of dead of wounded. Kulpaba emphasized that the armed forces of Abkhazia bombed Kodori, striking many military targets, while not harming the civilian population. According to Kulpaba, the civilian population was spared because a "gentleman's agreement" had been struck between the Svans and the Abkhazians. Kupalba called the fact that the fleeing Georgian army took their Soviet automatics but left their American ones behind "remarkable." "You can play war with them, but when it comes to the real thing, they aren't suitable," he emphasized, adding that American guns "fell and can no longer shoot." "No one abandoned their Kalashnikovs," he concluded.

IA Regnum