An ‘unprecedented’ barrage of as many as 30 drones were detected across Abkhazia on Wednesday night, authorities said, claiming the vast majority of them were shot down by Abkhazian and Russian air defences working together. Abkhazian Defence Ministry officials claimed no damage or casualties were caused.
‘Although reconnaissance being conducted by the adversary, facilities on the territory of the republic were not a direct target’, Lieutenant General Adgur Gumba said on Thursday.
Videos of drones flying and being intercepted across Abkhazia were spread widely across social media, as well as photo and video evidence of drone fragments.
Gumba further claimed that 99% of the detected drones were destroyed, with fragments being found in at least 11 populated areas.
In the past, Abkhazian authorities had detected smaller groups of drones, some consisting of five to seven drones, of which a few had been shot down. Gumba said the incidents had been ‘kept under wraps to avoid creating panic’.
He did not specify when these incidents had occurred, nor made any comment about where the drones came from, although they were likely Ukrainian.
This was not the first time that Ukrainian drones have flown over Abkhazia — in July 2025, drones crossed over as they apparently headed for targets in the Russian cities of Sochi and Adler.
In October 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi made waves by suggesting that if Russia were to move military ships to a proposed naval base in Abkhazia, Ukraine would still strike there.
For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.
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