Ukrainian drones allegedly entered Abkhazian airspace on Wednesday night en route towards striking targets in the nearby Russian cities of Sochi and Adler, a number of local media outlets claimed. The news was later corroborated by Abkhazian President Badra Gunba.
If confirmed to be Ukrainian, it would be the first time since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that the war has directly reached Abkhazia. 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.
Telegram accounts from Abkhazia shared a video that purported to be from the town of Tsandrypsh (Gantiadi), near the Russian border.
In the video, an unnamed narrator says, ‘Drones over Tsandrypsh [...] air defence is working. Imagine, here it is buzzing [...] There it is, look! Right above us!’, as the video footage clearly shows tracer shots being fired into the sky.
Later, Gunba said that Abkhazia’s territorial airspace had been violated by drones, but did not mention Ukraine.
Gunba added that he had summoned a security council meeting to discuss the incident and how to prevent it in the future.
OC Media has reached out to Georgia’s Defence Ministry for comment on the alleged incursion of Ukrainian drones, but has not received a comment.
While not specifically mentioning Abkhazia, Venyamin Kondratiev, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, confirmed that drones had struck Adler, located directly on the border, killing two people and injuring at least 11 more.
Other Russian officials said drones had struck an oil depot in the area.
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.
Nate Ostiller
