Abkhazia will not guarantee the security of flights over its territory unless the authorities in Sokhumi have been given prior notification, Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh said on October 3, Apsnipress news agency reported.

Bagapsh said that cases of “unidentified aircraft [flying] over Abkhazia on reconnaissance missions have become frequent recently”

“The Abkhaz Defense Ministry will undertake measures to prevent such flights over Abkhazia,” he added.

In a letter sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) and the command of the Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in the conflict zone, Bagapsh said that Georgian air controllers should not be managing international civil flights that fly over Abkhazia. He said that the Abkhaz air control center in Sokhumi airport was capable of handling them.