Battle off the coast of Abkhazia
The Skirmish off the coast of Abkhazia was a naval engagement between warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy and the Georgian Navy during the Russo-Georgian War. The engagement According to Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet left their base in Sevastopol, Ukraine, on the evening of 8 August. On 10 August RIA Novosti – quoting a source in the Russian Navy headquarters – reported that a group of Russian warships had arrived at the maritime border with Georgia in the eastern part of the Black Sea. According to the source, the vessel Moskva, accompanied by a patrol vessel and supply ships, travelled from Sevastopol. They would join three large landing ships that had earlier arrived in the area from Sevastopol and from Novorossiysk. "The purpose of the Black Sea Fleet vessels' presence in this region is to provide aid to refugees", the source said. The source denied media reports that the warships were enforcing a blockade of Georgia's coast. "A blockade of the coastline would mean war with Georgia, and we are not in a state of war with Georgia." Abkhaz officials said that several Georgian warships had attempted on 9 August to approach the coast of Abkhazia, but the attempts were curbed by the Russian ships. On 10 August a naval skirmish between the Russian ships and several Georgian naval vessels took place. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, four Georgian fast missile boats breached the "security zone" declared around the Russian Navy ships off Abkhazia. After an attempt at hailing the intruding units, the Russian units opened fire with artillery, sinking one of the ships and forcing the remaining three Georgian boats to withdraw towards the port of Poti. The Russian navy earlier said that Russian warships originally said to be near the Georgian coast had put into Novorossiysk. This action constituted the Russian Navy's first real sea battle since 1945. Russian media reported that a naval battle took place on 10 August 2008. The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying that Georgian missile patrol boats twice tried to attack Russian ships. According to a sailor interviewed in Sevastopol on 13 August, a Georgian vessel was struck and sunk in 300 m of water by P-120 ''Malakhit'' (SS-N-9 'Siren') missile, fired allegedly by the guided missile corvette MRK Mirazh. Furthermore, the sailor claimed that a second ship was also damaged during the battle. He said that the vessel sunk in action was the missile boat Tbilisi. It is reported that the vessel disappeared from the surface within 90 seconds in 300 meters of water. Russian media also reported that the sunk Georgian vessel was Tbilisi. However, this was disputed. It was suggested that the destroyed vessel was the P-21 patrol boat Giorgi Toreli. Russian Navy operations According to Georgian sources, the Russian navy that moved toward Georgia, comprised the following vessels: Ropucha-class landing ships Tsezar Kunikov and Yamal. Alligator-class landing ship