The Caucasus

The Caucasus and the eastern Black Sea

Historical significance

In the Second World War the region was the prize of Germany’s 1942 summer offensive. German troops took Rostov-on-Don on 25 July 1942, opening the way to the oil fields at Maykop, Grozny and Baku, and Operation Edelweiss carried them as far as Alagir and Ordzhonikidze by early November before the threat of encirclement forced them back that winter. [1]

After the Soviet Union broke up, Georgia lost control of two regions. In the 1992–1993 war in Abkhazia, Abkhaz separatists, backed by North Caucasian volunteers and by Russian forces stationed in and near Abkhazia, defeated Georgian government forces; after SukhumiSukhum International Airport (Babushara) AirfieldAbkhazia's main airport, closed by war in 1993 and reopened to Moscow flights in 2025; base of the small Abkhaz air force. fell on 27 September 1993, about 250,000 Georgians were displaced. [2] In August 2008 Russia invaded Georgia in support of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in what is regarded as the first European war of the 21st century. [3] Russian aircraft bombed Gori, the port of Poti and the VazianiVaziani Air Base AirfieldA former Soviet air-defence fighter base south-east of Tbilisi, held by Russia until 2001 and beside Georgia's main army base. base outside Tbilisi, the Black Sea Fleet blockaded the Georgian coast, and Georgian air defencesAir defense GlossaryJoint terms: Defensive measures designed to destroy attacking enemy aircraft or missiles in the atmosphere, or to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of such attack., notably SA-11 BukSA-11 Gadfly Threat systemThe SA-6's successor: each tracked launcher carries its own Fire Dome radar and four semi-active homing missiles. launchers, were credited by US officials with shooting down a Tu-22M bomber; six Russian aircraft were shot down in all. [3]

Forces deployed

• Vaziani, south-east of Tbilisi: built as a Soviet Army base in 1941 and held by Russia until 2001, it is now home to the Georgian Land Forces’ 4th Mechanized Brigade and 23rd Infantry Battalion, beside a former Soviet airfield still in limited use. [4] Georgia reported that two Russian bombs hit it on 8 August 2008. [3] From 2011 it hosted the Agile Spirit and Noble Partner exercises with US and NATO forces, which stopped when Georgia’s military ties with the West were suspended in 2024. [4]
• MozdokMozdok Air Base AirfieldA Russian strategic aviation base in North Ossetia, used in the First Chechen War and the Syrian operation., North Ossetia: a Russian air base with a detachment of the 485th Independent Helicopter Regiment. [5]
• KrymskKrymsk Air Base AirfieldA Russian Aerospace Forces Su-27 and Su-30 fighter base north of Krymsk, in the Southern Military District., Krasnodar Krai: a Russian Aerospace Forces base of the 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army, Southern Military District. [6]
• Black Sea Fleet: two battalions of its marines took part in the 2008 war, and its ships blockaded Georgia’s coast from 10 August, the fleet’s first such operation since 1945. [3]