Two South Ossetian Defence Ministry personnel have been detained after attacking police officers after a traffic accident.
The incident took place on the evening of Sunday evening in Tskhinvali (Tskhinval).
According to investigators, two unnamed South Ossetians born in 2004 and 2005 were involved in a road traffic accident on Heroes Street while intoxicated. After an investigative team from the Interior Ministry arrived, a conflict began between the drivers and law enforcement officers, which escalated into a fight, the Military Prosecutor’s Office reported.
Preliminary information indicates that the conflict was linked to attempts by those involved in the incident to leave the scene of the accident, after which they were detained by officers from the city police department. According to the Military Prosecutor’s Office, both detainees are employees of the Defence Ministry.
The suspects were detained and placed in a temporary detention facility, with the Military Prosecutor’s Office stating that it is preparing a request to place them under pre-trial detention as a preventive measure. Authorities have also reported that additional investigative measures were being carried out to establish all the circumstances of the incident.
After their arrest, the two detainees’ colleagues and friends gathered outside the police department building in Tskhinvali and demanded their release. Police officers fired warning shots to disperse the crowd. No injuries have been officially reported, and there is no information about injuries in local online platforms either.
A video of the incident has been published online, in which at least five gunshots can be heard. However, based on the footage itself, it is unclear who exactly appears in the video or what demands they were making.
Employees of the South Ossetian Defence Ministry have previously appeared in criminal reports. In February 2025, a Defence Ministry employee reportedly opened fire on his wife’s car after an argument.
In 2024, a police officer and a Defence Ministry employee were involved in a shootout near a café. Both of them sustained serious injuries.
In 2021, journalist Ruslan Totrov was attacked and injured by South Ossetian Deputy Defence Minister Sergei Kabisov. The attack was reportedly triggered by criticism of then-South Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov published by Totrov on social media.
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.
