By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A Russian peacekeeper sustained gunshot wounds and another was stabbed in Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia, peacekeepers and national media reported on Wednesday.
A deputy commander for the Collective CIS Peacekeeping Force, which has been deployed in the conflict zone since the 1990s, said one peacekeeper had been stabbed “as a result of hooliganism by yet unknown persons” adding the man’s life was not in danger.
“Georgian law enforcement bodies are currently conducting an investigation to trace those guilty of involvement in the incident,” Alexander Diordiev said.
In a separate incident, Georgia’s Rustavi-2 TV channel said that a Russian peacekeeper had sustained gunshot wounds during a quarrel with other peacekeepers on Tuesday.
“The injured soldier was admitted to a hospital in the town of Zugdidi [western Georgia]. He was given initial medical treatment, and was then taken away,” a member of staff at the hospital was quoted as saying.
According to Rustavi-2 TV, the injured soldier is Anatoly Kostenko, 23, who has been admitted to a hospital in the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi.
A rotation of Russian peacekeepers in Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia has started and will continue until June 2, an aide to the Ground Forces commander said on Tuesday.
Abkhazia is one of Georgia’s two breakaway de facto independent republics, along with South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the republics since the 1990s. Moscow recently bolstered the number of its peacekeepers in Abkhazia in response to Georgian troop build-up, but said the increase was still within previously agreed limits of 3,000 soldiers.