Battle of Gagra The Battle of Gagra was fought between Georgian forces and the Abkhaz secessionists aided by the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus ( CMPC ) militants from October 1 to October 6 , 1992 during the War in Abkhazia . The allies , commanded by the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev , captured the town of Gagra from the undermanned Georgian forces ( which were reportedly fewer in numbers but possessed more tanks and armed personnel carrier s ) in a surprise attack , leading to an outbreak of ethnic cleansing of local Georgian population . The battle proved to be one of the bloodiest in the war and is widely considered to be a turning point in the Georgian - Abkhaz conflict . The action , in which Russian commanders were suspected to have aided to the attackers , also resulted in a significant deterioration of the Georgian - Russian relations . Background . Gagra is a Black Sea resort town in northwest Abkhazia , near the international border between Georgia and the Russian Federation . Georgian forces took control of the town from the Abkhaz insurgent militia in the August 1992 amphibious operation in an effort to push an offensive southward against the rebel - held enclave around Gudauta , where the Abkhaz secessionist leadership had taken refuge after the Georgian government forces had entered the regional capital of Sukhumi . Gudauta was also a home to the Soviet - era Russian military base , consisting of the 643rd anti - aircraft missile regiment and a supply unit , which were used to funnel arms to the Abkhaz . After initial military setback , Abkhaz leaders urged Russia and the CMPC to intervene in the conflict . The Confederation responded by declaring war on Georgia and by sending hundreds of its fighters to the Abkhaz side . Meanwhile , the Russian government arranged , on September 3 , 1992 , a truce which left Georgian government in control of most of Abkhazia but obliged it to withdraw a large part of its troops and hardware from Gagra and its environs . The conflicting sides resumed the negotiations concerning Abkhazia ’ s status within Georgia whose inviolable territorial integrity was emphasized in the ceasefire agreement . Assault on Gagra . The truce was not to last long , however . Shortly thereafter , the Abkhaz side declared that the Georgian government had failed to complete the withdrawal of its troops from the Gagra zone . However , according to Russian army Lieutenant General Sufiyan Bepayev , deputy commander of the Transcaucasian Military District , Georgians had complied with the September 3 accords , and by September 30 1 , 200 Georgian troops and corresponding equipment had been withdrawn from the area . On October 1 , one week after the Supreme Soviet of Russia had passed a motion condemning Georgia ’ s policy in Abkhazia and demanding Russian peacekeepers , the combined Abkhaz and North Caucasian forces resumed hostilities and launched an offensive against Gagra . They were commanded by the then little - known Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev who had been appointed Deputy Minister of Defense in the Abkhaz secessionist government and put in charge of the Gagra front . The offensive included T - 72 tanks , Grad rocket launchers , and other heavy equipment that the Abkhaz had not previously possessed . The allies were aided by combat helicopters and Su - 25 bombers . The type and quantity of equipment that helped advance the Abkhaz offensive was the first and primary cause of Georgian suspicions of Russian assistance to the secessionists . The Russian border guards were accused of at least not preventing the North Caucasian militants from crossing into Abkhazia . The Georgian side also accused Russians of assisting the attackers by imposing a naval blockade of the coastline and claimed that Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation , G . Kolesnikov , was directly responsible for planning the operation . The Georgian Shavnabada Battalion was caught in surprise but managed to build up a defensive line at the southern edges to the city . Artillery batteries were placed on surrounding heights prior and had a good view on the battlefield . The Abkhaz - North Caucasian alliance advanced in full force towards the city center and were met with heavy resistance and shelling . Georgian soldiers and artillery managed to defeat the core and the Shavnabada battalion recaptured the town by fierce close combat , forcing the enemy to retreat after receiving unacceptable losses . When trying to regroup at safe distance from the city , a large number of combatants started to disband as fighting morale dropped . Nevertheless , the Abkhaz - North Caucasian forces reconsolidated , launched another attack on Gagra and captured the town on October 2 . The Georgians had themselves entrenched in the town ' s police and railway station . During the final assault , the Abkhazians managed to kill 11 members of the elite unit " White Eagle " including its commander Gocha Karkarashvili , who was also the brother of Giorgi Karkarashvili , commander of the Georgian forces in Gagra . The heavily outnumbered Georgians were able to defend these two positions for a while until they were completely surrounded and surrendered . A Georgian counterattack fell short as the Orbi and White Eagle units were also engaged in the nearby forests and forced to retreat . As it became apparent that Georgian forces were abandoning Gagra completely due to internal rivalries intensifying in Georgia ' s capital , thousands of Georgian civilians fled to the villages of Gantiadi and Leselidze , immediately north of the town . Within the days that followed , the villages too fell , compounded by the flight of refugees to the Russian border . The Russian border guards allowed part of the Georgian civilians and military personnel to cross the border , and then transported them to Georgia proper . According to some sources , the commander of the Georgian forces in Gagra Giorgi Karkarashvili and some of his men were also evacuated by helicopter to Russian territory . Those Georgians who remained in Gagra and the surrounding villages were subjected to a violent reprisal campaign orchestrated by Basayev and Abkhaz militants ( many of them were Abkhaz refugees who had fled Georgian forces earlier and took revenge for what they themselves had been forced to endure ) . According to several accounts , one hundred Georgians were herded into the central stadium in Gagra where they were decapitated and their heads used as footballs in a soccer match . Official Georgian sources put 429 as the number of civilians who were killed during the battle or in its immediate aftermath . Mikheil Jincharadze , an influential Georgian politician from Gagra who served as Deputy Chairman of Supreme Council of Abkhazia , was captured in his house and executed by the decision of his Abkhazian friends . The battle of Gagra triggered the first allegations of Russian aid to the separatists and marked the beginning of a quick worsening of Georgia ’ s relations with Russia . By the end of October , the head of the Georgian government , Eduard Shevardnadze , had halted talks on the Russian mediation , declaring that because of Russia ’ s " undisguised interference , including military interference . . . in the internal affairs of sovereign Georgia , we have no other choice . " The see - saw fighting around Gagra continued until October 6 , 1992 . After the capture of Gagra , the Abkhaz - CMPC forces quickly gained control of the strategic area along the Russian border , and made steady progress , moving down the coast from Gagra to the Gumista River , north - west to Sukhumi , placing the regional capital itself at risk . The Georgian refugees either fled to Russia through the land border or were evacuated by the Russian navy .