According to the ministry, the peacekeepers from the contingent of collective peacekeeping forces in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone were detained on the night of December 22-23 in the town of Poti for breaching the 12-km (7.5-mile) security zone along the Inguri River where UN blue helmets are stationed to separate the Georgian and Abkhazian sides.
The Georgian defense ministry also claimed that the peacekeepers wore civilian clothes and were drunk at the moment of their detainment.
Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia following a bloody conflict that left hundreds dead in 1991-1992, and the CIS peacekeeping forces entered the conflict area in June 1994 under a ceasefire agreement signed in Moscow on May 14, 1994.
More than 100 Russian peacekeepers have been killed in the conflict zone since then.
There have been frequent and mutual accusations of ceasefire violations from both Abkhazia and Georgia. Peace talks broke off when Tbilisi sent troops into Kodori Gorge in July last year and established an alternative Abkhaz administration there.
