South Ossetian Army
| Military of South Ossetia | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Service branches |
South Ossetian Army South Ossetian Air Corps |
| Headquarters | Tskhinvali |
| Leadership | |
| Supreme Commander in Chief | Anatoliy Bibilov |
| Minister of Defense | Lieutenant-General Ibrahim Gazseev |
| Chief of the General Staff | Colonel Viktor Fedorov |
| Industry | |
| Domestic suppliers |
 South Ossetia
|
| Foreign suppliers |
 Russia Abkhazia Transnistria
|
| Related articles | |
| History | |
South Ossetian Army
The Military of South Ossetia is the military of the partially recognised state of South Ossetia. The force numbers about 2,500 men, or 16,000, including reservists. In includes an Army and an Air Corp.
The South Ossetian Army was formed in 1992, and is the primary defense force in the breakaway sovereign region of South Ossetia, largely considered to be within recognized Georgian territory.
The South Ossetian military fought against the Georgian forces in the 2008 South Ossetia war. At the time of the major Georgian offensive, the bulk of the Ossetian force was concentrated in the settlement of Java to the north of Tskhinvali. According to Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, what thwarted the Georgian operation in the end was the resistance offered by peacekeepers and lightly armed South Ossetian units that stayed behind to defend the capital. Also Russian regular army forces entered the fighting on August 8 and drove deep into Georgia proper, occasionally accompanied or followed by South Ossetian militia who allegedly committed serious human rights violations, particularly in the Georgian villages of South Ossetia.
According one estimate, the losses of the South Ossetian military forces, militia, and volunteers in the war amounted to 150 dead. According to the 2012 statement by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Russia had been training the South Ossetian militias as part of the Russian General Staff's 2006–2007 plan to rebuff Georgia in case of war.
In March 2015, members of the Parliament of South Ossetia put forward a proposal to dissolve South Ossetia's military and fold it into the Russian Armed Forces, but the proposal was ultimately rejected by Leonid Tibilov and Defense Minister Ibragim Gassayev. The South Ossetian units were to be incorporated into the Russian military but remain separate units.
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