"Ukraine asked Georgia to return the Buk-type air defense system, but Georgia refused" - acting Ambassador of Ukraine

Ukraine-Georgia row over defense system

The Ukrainian authorities asked Georgia to return the Buk-type anti-aircraft missile system which Ukraine sent to Georgia during the 2008 war, but received a categorical refusal, according to Andrey Kasyanov, chargé d’affaires of Ukraine in Georgia, in a recent article “How Georgia Helps Ukraine and Where Problems Remain” for the website European Pravda.

Kasyanov writes that Ukraine also asked for Javelin anti-tank systems given to Georgia by the United States, an agreement concluded with the latter, and to include replacement with new systems.

“The Ukrainian side is consistent in its requests to all international partners, including Georgia, for the supply of weapons, military equipment and ammunition. Also, Ukraine frankly declared a vital need for weapons immediately after the start of a large-scale invasion by the Russian Federation,” Kasyanov’s article reads.

Despite the Georgian government’s categorical refusal to provide military assistance, “Ukraine opposes the use of this issue in internal political disputes and rejects any accusations of trying to drag Georgia into a war with Russia.”

In the article, Kasyanov also talks about the health of Mikheil Saakashvili and asks that he be sent abroad for treatment.

Giorgi Volsky, a deputy from the ruling Georgian Dream party, replied to Kasyanov’s article:

“There was a demand not for the surrender of weapons, but for an organized dispatch of volunteers. They sent planes, charter flights from Ukraine, but we did not agree to this, because that would mean entering the war,” Volsky said.

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On December 6, Georgian Dream executive secretary Mamuka Mdinaradze said members of the “war party”, referring to the main opposition United National Movement, were traveling through villages looking for people to send to Ukraine and looking for ways to “romanticize these events.”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili at a government meeting on December 5 expressed his condolences to the families of the Georgian soldiers who died in Bakhmut, and talked again about the “war party”, which he believes controls the Georgian military.

This outraged segments of society. Politicians and writers reacted to his words, as well as Georgians fighting in Ukraine, and the father of volunteer Dzhambulat Khoferia, who died in Bakhmut.

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