FM: Ukraine to protect Saakashvili just like any other citizen

“The position of the Ukrainian state is as follows: regardless of surname and social status, a citizen of Ukraine enjoys the full support and protection of Ukraine anywhere in the world. That is why Ukraine provides Mr. Saakashvili with the same amount of consular assistance that is granted to any other citizen who gets into trouble abroad,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Ukrinform.

He noted that the consul had visited Saakashvili on Monday, while the Ukrainian embassy in Georgia should establish a mechanism for prompt cooperation with the Georgian authorities so that issues related to the case could be resolved at any time.

The minister added that further actions would depend on the procedural steps taken by the Georgian authorities against Saakashvili.

"But we will protect him because he is our citizen," the foreign minister summed up.

As reported, on Friday morning, October 1, Saakashvili posted a video on Facebook, in which he said that he was in Batumi.

In the evening of the same day, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced that Mikheil Saakashvili had been detained on October 1. In turn, the former president went on a hunger strike, saying he considered himself a political prisoner.

Mikheil Saakashvili was the president of Georgia in 2008-2013. After losing the 2013 election, he left the country. Several criminal cases were instituted against him in his homeland, within some of which he was sentenced to imprisonment in absentia.

In 2015, Saakashvili was deprived of Georgian citizenship and has been a citizen of Ukraine for almost six years. He currently heads the Executive Committee of the National Reform Council of Ukraine.

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