“These are planned maneuvers,” said President of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh. “But there (in Georgia- Kommersant), of course, they will see it totally different. They probably would “attach” them to Bush visit or GUUAM Summit!”
Photo: Valery Melnikov
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Shooting at Plywood Ships
// Kommersant correspondent visited war zone in Abkhazia.
A few days ago, large military maneuvers finished in the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia. In the last stage of the maneuvers, they used fighter bombers and a system of simultaneous fire that were defending against an attack of make believe enemies from the sea. Kommersant correspondent Olga Allenova was watching the maneuvers.
The large testing ground around Ochamchira was chosen for the maneuvers with close to real battle conditions. At 10 a.m. the President of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh and Vice President Raul Khadjimba arrived to the proving grounds. Minister of Defense Sultan Sosnaliev led them to the sea where they could look at the plywood targets supposed to be representing enemy ships. The president took binoculars and started to look at them. The general said about 3,000 reservists were mobilized for these maneuvers. Then together with the president went to the command post. An old building was chosen as the command post after walls of the second floor were removed and a canopy of bamboo sticks installed. There were different kinds of radios and devices for the long-distance observation. From here the Abkhazian leaders were supposed to watch how their army repelled the enemy’s attack. But before it all started, the head of the joint chiefs of staff of the Ministry of Defense of Abkhazia Anatoly Zaytsev reported to the president and the defense minister that there are 301 targets set on the field, five on the sea and two in the air.
“We suppose that the enemy with a force of up to 10 ships and four of these ships are troop carriers is planning to drop naval infantry opposite to Ochamchira,” Gen. Zaytsev reported. “To seize the beachhead and then simultaneously strike from Galsk district direction, then join forces on the river and occupy Galsk district. To protect our territory we reinforced the border control troops, mobilized and enveloped on the beachhead the eastern group of troops. According to the existing situation, because the enemy concentration is seven times higher than ours,” the general showed on the map, “defense minister made a decision to move forth the mobile infantry brigade from the second defense line to the first….”
General Zaytsev definitely in his sphere compared with the reservists standing in line nearby. They didn’t fight for a long time and now they were looking with some curiosity at the military leader. The sun was pouring down on the testing ground and was reflecting from the sea. The trees were blooming. The birds were singing. Neither reservists nor president wanted to fight. At least that’s what it looked like to me. But that was a final stage of maneuvers. The most important one when Abkhazians were supposed to show that they didn’t forget how to fight. They had to show that just for the reason that for after all in the summer nobody would prevent them to receive tourists and enjoy sun and sea by themselves.
“Comrade commander in chief, allow to start the stage of battle maneuvers,” Gen. Zaytsev asked permission. And after hearing, “Do it according to the plan,” he lined up the commanders of the unit. They reported that communication, navy, aviation, tanks and mobile infantry is ready for maneuvers. The president and other military officials went up to the command post. They allowed me to be with them.
The order to –“Bring all the units in ready positions”—the radio sounded. “There were discovered unlawful armed formations of the enemy.”
Left of us from the woods we could observe soldiers running from the trenches. The aircraft appeared over the sky.
Soldiers started to shoot from the trenches to the targets that were supposed to represent the enemy reconnaissance troops that were supposed to have infiltrated the border. The targets were far away, so I didn’t see if the soldiers hit them. But according to how quietly Gen. Sosnaliev and the president looked through their binoculars, I think they were hitting their targets.
“Twenty-first reporting” the radio spoke again. “Four enemy ships are going toward the shore release the infantry! The naval unit came to the within 5 kilometers.”
“Readiness No. 1! Fire!”
Simultaneous shots blasted the air. First I did not understand where they were coming from, but then I saw two fighter bombers. Helicopter MI-8 appeared from the mountainside. The sea started to explode with white columns of water. The targets were bouncing on the waves but did not sink. The aviation circled over the sea and disappeared somewhere in the mountain. The battle aircraft SU was not known to Abkhaz army. A year ago, people in the defense ministry of Abkhazia were joking that all Abkhazian air force is nothing but gliders with machine guns attached to them. Now everything is different and the fact that the fighter bombers did not hit the targets is understandable. If they appeared in Abkhazia only recently, Abkhazians just didn’t have enough time to learn how to fly them. I immediately remembered a statement of the Georgian Minister Khaindrava who said angrily that Abkhazian pilots are taught by Russian instructors. It looks like the state minister knew what he was talking about.
The border controllers left the trenches and went back into the woods.
“Division!” the radio sounded again. “Complete task No. 6. Shoot the targets in the water. The time for completion 7 minutes.”
Then came new order for the bombers. And they started to blow up the sea again. They hit one target. At the same time, the radio was telling that the enemy had begun to shoot at the first line of defense. And the seashore started to explode. “Twenty-third! Observing enemy aircraft!” the radio reported. From somewhere two military trucks with anti-aircraft guns appeared. They started to shoot in the air.
Now it was time for navy cutters. The president took binoculars and started looking at the sea. After a few minutes, three cutters appeared. They were going along the seashore and shooting yellow targets. But targets didn’t sink.
“They’re shooting at the enemy,” some major tried to explain to me. He didn’t want me to believe that they might not hit the targets. “The target is from plywood. It is not a ship. When the anti-aircraft gun shoots, or cannon or non-directed missiles, then the shell just breaks through the target and falls into the water. You could see well in binoculars there are a lot of holes in the targets.”
Here came a new command. “Pull up the troops to defense line No. 1. Destroy the enemy!” From three sides appeared tanks camouflaged by green bamboo shoots. They went toward the sea. Gen. Zaytsev commanded on the radio, “Fire!” And cannons started to sound. One target got blown to pieces. Then second and then third. One was still there and they were shooting at it for at least two minutes. When one of the tanks finally hit it, the president and minister of defense clapped. But the tanks did not stop. They kept shooting and shooting at the sea. The powerful blasts were probably heard all over Abkhazia.
“Why are they still shooting?” I asked the major standing nearby.
“Because they didn’t finish yet,” the major answered with a stone face. “For an Abkhazian to shoot is better than anything in the world.”
“See that tank in the middle with radio handle The Ax?” another major asked me. “He probably didn’t understand that the target is already hit that’s why he is continuing.”
The officers started laughing. Everybody had fun because yellow targets disappeared from the water. “In reality they’re working out different versions of possible actions. For instance right now they’re practicing the maximum distance. You see that far-away target? They’re trying to get it,” the major said again. The shell hit nearby, but target was still at the same place.
“In reality, even if shell hits within a meter of the target the task is completed,” said the major. “The target is small and a real ship is big. So if it would be there, it wouldn’t be there anymore.”
The tanks after completing their task turned around and went back into the woods. At the same time, far in the sea, almost at the horizon, there were some explosions.
“It’s a BM 21,” the major explained. “Another name is Grad. You will not see them. They are standing from here in the distance of 22 kilometers. The Grads do not shoot precisely at the targets. They’re working at squares.”
Then somebody started to shoot from grenade launchers. Suddenly the targets of human height appeared on the shore. That meant that the naval infantry from the enemy had survived and gotten to the beach. The Abkhazian infantry ran toward the target, shooting at them.
“Now they will be killed or captured,” the major said.
Gen. Zaytsev came up to the command post. He reported to the president that the third stage of maneuvers is completed. President Bagapsh sat at the chair and pulled out a cigarette. I asked him about statements from the Georgian side that Sukhumi can be taken by the end of the year. The president told me that he doesn’t like statements like this. And that probably these statements were made specifically to raise the fighting spirit before President Bush’s arrival. I asked him if the maneuvers were conducted to show the battle readiness of the Abkhazian army.
“Yes, it’s a planned maneuvers,” answered Bagapsh. “But of course there they will see it in a totally different light. They will “attach” it to the Bush visit or to GUUAM summit.”
“According to these maneuvers do you intend to increase the military budget?” I asked.
“Yes, we’re going to,” Bagapsh said. “And we’ve already increased it by 20 percent. But in next year, we’re going to increase it probably two times. Everything is included in there, the arms purchases, the salary fund, materials and backline provisions, and training. But we are increasing our budget even more. In this year, we have a budget of 640 million rubles. And soon we’ll have 1.01 billion rubles. Where is the money coming from? We’re opening new enterprises, we’re starting tax system reforms, and we’re collecting more taxes. We also are going to increase the tariffs for electric energy. Unpopular method you say? Well, unpopular of course. But we can’t destroy the electric power grid.
“And how much money you spending now for defense?”
“About 8% of the budget. That’s without those 20%, which will be added in this year.”
Somebody called president to come downstairs. The unit commanders received their grades for a performance – mostly “good” and “excellent”. Only general Vyacheslav Eshba, air force commander, got “unsatisfactory”, and was told to practice more.
President Bagapsh thanked the reservists, and they responded without much order:” Serving Republic of Abkhazia!” And they started to laugh. Bagapsh also smiled, waived his hand and said: ”It’s OK!”
The defense minister gave reward diplomas to the reservists who showed themselves especially well. On of them was elderly man in military vests and warm hat, which he, probably, kept since the last war. This veteran showed the best results among the tankers.
Olga Allenova
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 22, 2005
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