Georgian post in Ganmukhuri attacked

The Georgian border post in the village of Ganmukhuri, Zugdidi region, was shot at on Thursday, the Georgian media has reported. The shooting broke out at 3 am in the morning according to locals. Conflicting reports of the incident have been received, some local residents saying that there was crossfire, while others maintain that the Russian border guards shot from their post but their fire was not returned.

A Georgian law enforcer was wounded during the shooting, according to officials. Davit Bechvaia was taken to hospital in Zugdidi, where his health situation is currently stable, doctors say. “He underwent an operation on his leg and now his life is not in danger,” one of the doctors noted. Representatives of the EU Monitoring Mission have already visited the site of the incident. Separatists and Russian occupiers denied the fact of shooting from their side..

Another incident occurred at the administrative border between the Gali and Zugdidi regions earlier on Wednesday. Head of the United National Examinations Centre Maia Miminoshvili said on Thursday that university candidates trying to cross into Zugdidi had encountered “some problems” with the so-called border guards. “250 candidates from Gali region were registered in the Exams Centre. They went to Zugdidi yesterday to take exams today. Eight of them had problems with the so-called border guards. They took away the IDs of the candidates,” she said.

Miminoshvili noted that the candidates turned up anyway without ID cards. “We made an exception for them. By now we have restored them their IDs,” she said. “We are concerned, as this is not the first case in which university candidates from the Gali region have encountered problems while crossing the so-called border,” Miminoshvili added.