On Sunday afternoon, South Ossetian air defense forces forced down a Georgian Mi-8 helicopter with the defense minister and deputy chief of the General Staff on board in an incident that has fueled regional tension. The pilot managed to land the helicopter and none was hurt.
Yury Popov, the Foreign Ministry's ambassador at large, said, "Georgia is to blame for violating the air space of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone. I do not want to comment on the actions of those who attacked the helicopter but initially the incident was provoked by the Georgian side as an aircraft has no right to violate the conflict zone's air space."
The diplomat said he was yet to receive detailed information on what had happened. "However, I can say that the incident has seriously escalated the situation in the conflict zone."
Popov said the Russian Foreign Ministry had no information about any alleged attack made by the Georgian helicopter on South Ossetia's air defenses after Anatoly Barankevich, the unrecognized republic's defense minister, said the helicopter was the first to open fire at the republic's forces.
"They opened fire at the South Ossetian officers from a machinegun, forcing the South Ossetian side to respond," Barankevich said.
Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili, who was traveling from the capital, Tbilisi, to a base in the west over South Ossetia when the incident happened, dismissed Sunday the South Ossetia claims.
"South Ossetia has a habit of accusing Georgian helicopters of violating its so-called air space," he said. "But there is no such thing, and ... we will soon put an end to this."
Relations between Georgia and the northern province of South Ossetia have been tense since the early 1990s when the republic proclaimed independence after a bloody conflict with Georgia. A trilateral peacekeeping force - Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian - maintains a fragile peace in the conflict zone, but Georgia is seeking to re-establish full control over the republic and introduce international peacekeepers to the area. Russian peacekeepers said Monday they had tightened security in connection with the helicopter attack.
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said the incident was "blatant provocation", but added, "Georgia will proceed within the plan of peaceful resolution of the conflict."
On Sunday afternoon, South Ossetia said it had been forced to shoot down the helicopter.
"The pilots did not react to our calls for it to land or change its flight path," spokeswoman Gagloyeva said. "Considering that Georgia's violations of South Ossetian air space have become frequent, a decision was made to shoot down the helicopter."
The Georgian Interior Ministry first confirmed that the aircraft had been forced down.
"We can confirm that our helicopter was shot down in South Ossetia," said Shota Khizanishvili, a spokesman for the ministry.
But a few hours later, Georgian, South Ossetian and peacekeeping representatives all said that the helicopter had continued its flight despite being damaged by the gunfire.
Marat Kulakhmetov of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the conflict zone said, "The Mi-8 was shot at but managed to reach Georgian territory without anyone being injured."
He said Georgian soldiers had confirmed that the craft had landed in Georgia.
However, South Ossetia's Irina Gagloyeva said Sunday night that the Georgian helicopter had landed three kilometers away from the Georgian border.
"The nearest border guard post of South Ossetia is three kilometers away [from the landing site], and Georgian soldiers managed to evacuate the helicopter's passengers before South Ossetian officers arrived," she said.
