Tensions Rise As Un Says Russian Air Force Downed Georgian Drone

Tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow increased yesterday after a UN report concluded that the Russian air force had shot down an unmanned Georgian spy drone over the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

The UN's mission in Georgia said a Russian fighter jet had downed the spy plane on April 30 - despite vehement denials by Moscow. Based on video footage, witnesses and radar records, the UN report backs up Georgia's claim that Russia is giving military aid to Abkhazia, a separatist Black Sea region that broke away from Georgia after the 1992-93 war.

But the UN also criticizes Tbilisi for violating the terms of a 1994 ceasefire. Georgia has sent at least three spy drones over Abkhazia since March, the report said, despite a ban on surveillance aircraft.

Dramatic video footage from the drone shows a jet fighter swooping into view, before firing a short-range missile. The video then goes blank. The report said the fighter was a MiG-29 or Su-27, types neither of which Abkhazia owns.

The jet then flew off into Russian airspace, the report added. "Absent [of] compelling evidence to the contrary, this leads to the conclusion that the aircraft belonged to the Russian air force," said the report, which was posted on the UN mission in Georgia's website.

Yesterday Abkhazia's separatist foreign minister, Sergei Shamba, accused the UN of bias and insisted that Abkhaz forces shot down the drone.

"We don't believe in this report," he told the Guardian. "The report isn't independent ... the only important bit is that it proves Georgia violates our territorial integrity and the ceasefire agreement."

When asked about the report stating that the jet had a distinctive twin-finned tail while all of Abkhazia's tiny fleet of L-39 jets have single tails, Shamba said: "All this stuff about double fins is irrelevant."

Tensions between Georgia and Russia have escalated significantly over the past two months after Vlaidmir Putin, Russia's then president, boosted ties with Abkhazia by recognizing it as a legal entity. His move appeared designed to punish Georgia for its recent attempts to join Nato.

Georgia accuses Russia of trying to annexe Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia.

Since the standoff began Moscow and Tbilisi appear to have built up forces on the mountainous de facto border between Abkhazia and Georgia - where 3,000 Russian troops are stationed under the peacekeeping agreement.

Yesterday Georgia's pro-western president, Mikheil Saakashvili, welcomed the UN's report, saying it was "the first ever case when an international organization ... pointed at Russia for such actions". The report contained a "direct accusation against Russia of an act of aggression", he said. "All of this demands a tough reaction by the international community."

Yesterday Russia's defence ministry again denied its involvement. "There can't be any talk of any violation of Georgia's state border, to say nothing of shooting down unmanned aircraft," a spokesman, Alexander Drobyshevsky, said.

Last Wednesday Saakashvili parlayed tensions with Russia into a sweeping victory during Georgian parliamentary elections. His United National Movement won about 120 out of 150 seats.