Battle off the coast of Abkhazia The Battle off the coast of Abkhazia was a naval engagement between warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and patrol boats of the Georgian Navy and Coastguard during the 2008 South Ossetia War . The Engagement . According to a purported eyewitness account posted in the Ukrainian Communications Portal ( UPK . com ) , the skirmish took place , during a night - time landing of Russian troops at Ochamchira , where the troops were to meet up with their vehicles and supplies , arriving from Russia to Abkhazia by railroad . The identity of the allegedly sunk Georgian ship was initially reported as the missile boat " Tbilisi " . However , that ship is now documented on film as having been destroyed in the port of Poti along with the other missile boat of the Georgian Navy , the " Dioskuria " . The remaining units , all but one also destroyed in Poti , are small patrol ships of either the Georgian Navy or its Coast Guard . It is the latter ' s fastest unit ( 35 knots ) , P - 21 " Giorgi Toreli " , that is identified now by consensus as the vessel sunk at the Battle off the coast of Abkhazia , with the probable total loss of its crew . The " Tbilisi " is a Matka class missile boat while the P - 21 " Giorgi Toreli " is a Stenka class patrol boat . Their radar signature and other electronic activity could conceivably have led to confusion , provided no missiles were fired by the Georgian vessel , as neither ship has such weaponry . Russian Navy operations . The Russian Navy dispatched two task forces from Sevastopol , one allegedly to impose a naval blockade on Georgia , while the other , bearing amphibious troops and assisted by guided missile cruiser " Moskva " and smaller missile - warfare capable ships allegedly advanced to the coast of Abkhazia , to the small port of Ochamchira . The possibly 400 troops on board were to strike deep from Ochamchira to points north ( Kodori Gorge ) , southeast Senaki and south Poti . According to Chinese reporting citing unnamed Russian sources the blockading units were assigned the task to not allow arms and military hardware supplies to reach Georgia by sea . Unconfirmed Georgian information reported the Russian task forces allegedly moving toward Georgia comprised the following units with the exact allocation to each one task force yet undetermined : The task force was co - ordinated and deployed from Sevastopol in Ukraine , home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet . While the Georgian authorities are silent on any naval battle , they have claimed detailed information as to the damages inflicted on Georgia by the Black Sea Fleet , besides the blockade mission asserted by Georgia . The Russian task force , according to the Georgian Foreign Ministry statement , landed 4 , 000 troops and met up with their armor in Ochamchira . It then went on to support an attack against Georgian troops deployed at Kodori Gorge and struck deep into Georgia proper , reaching the port of Poti ( another difficult feat to accomplish since Kodori Gorge is in the mountains east of Sukhumi while Poti is on the coast some distance south of Sukhumi ) . The Georgian source goes on to allege that a missile attack was launched against an inland target in " Kodori " by the Russian guided missile cruiser " Moskva " . " ( Neither of the actions noted by the Georgian source could have been accomplished by the Russian naval force alleged to have operated off the Georgian coast . The listed ships could not have supported the landing of 4 , 000 troops and the cruiser Moskva possesses no armament designed to attack inland ground targets . Further , the Kodori Gorge lies generally east - west and is located 40 - 50 miles east of Sukhumi while the Port of Poti is on the coast some 70 miles south of Sukhumi . ) " The engagement . According to Black Sea Fleet officials , Georgian Navy ships consisting of two missile boat s and two auxiliary craft breached the " security zone " declared around the Russian Navy ships off Abkhazia . The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that , after two Russian attempts at hailing the intruding units , the Russian units opened fire with naval anti - ship missiles , sinking one of the attacking ships and forcing the remaining three Georgian warships to withdraw towards the port of Poti . While the Georgian sources remain silent about the engagement , Abkhazian officials confirmed that some battle took place off their coast . It was to transpire one day later than claimed by other sources and was confirmed by official Russian sources as having taken place on 10 August 2008 , and that a Georgian warship was struck and sunk in 300 m of water by two P - 120 Malakhit ( SS - N - 9 ' Siren ' ) missiles , fired by the guided missile corvette MRK " Mirazh " . Furthermore , the Russians were on record as believing that a second ship was also damaged . More problematically , Russian press reported , as did the Russian witness sailor , that the vessel sunk in action was the missile boat " Tbilisi " , but this proved to be false . It is now believed that the vessel destroyed was the fast P - 21 patrol ship " Giorgi Toreli " , a Coast Guard Border Patrol vessel , armed with two 30mm automatic cannon s . According to a second - hand blogger , Russian sources claim that P - 21 " disappeared from the surface " within 90 seconds in 300 m of water . Aftermath . Russian land forces that landed in Ochamchira took control of the port of Poti on 12 August 2008 . According to the Georgian government all the naval vessels there , most of which were Coast Guard Border Police patrol vessels , were destroyed at the pier by the demolition teams or hauled off and sunk in shallow water just outside the port entry , as was the case with the missile boat " Dioskuria " . The crews were permitted to leave beforehand , unharmed . The commanding officer of the corvette " Mirazh " , Captain 3rd Rank Ivan Dubik , was received in Moscow by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev , who awarded him a military medal , along with another members of the Russian armed forces .