Ukrainian FM says it ‘will support ex-president Saakashvili as he is a Ukrainian citizen’
Based on the information released by the Georgian Interior Ministry earlier today, Georgian law enforcers, the State Security Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office carried out a joint operation to detain ex-president Saakashvili. Photo: video grab.
Tweet 
Share
“The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine will support ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, since he is a citizen of Ukraine”, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Saakashvili returned to Georgia in the past few days, though the exact date of his arrival in the country remains unclear; his United National Movement party claims that he had arrived in late September.
The government meanwhile says he was detained and taken to Rustavi Detention Facility No. 5 on October 1, all of which took place within 24 hours of his arrival.
Kuleba said that a representative of the Georgian Embassy to Ukraine would go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on October 2 in order to discuss Saakashvili’s case with the ministry.
We [the government of Ukraine] protect every citizen of Ukraine when he or she gets in trouble”, Kuleba said in a comment to the Dom TV channel earlier today.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisor Mikhail Podolyak said earlier today that ‘the situation around the detention of Saakashvili is under the personal control of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Mikheil Saakashvili is a citizen of Ukraine and we [the Ukrainian government] must bring our citizen back”, said Podolyak.
Mikheil Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page that he arrived in Georgia in the morning of October 1. In the evening of the same day, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated that ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who returned from Ukraine to Georgia, had been detained and taken to Rustavi prison No. 5.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said today that the detention of Saakashvili, who is charged with several criminal offences, was planned in advance.
Based on the information released by the ministry earlier today, Georgian law enforcers, the State Security Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office carried out a joint operation to detain ex-president Saakashvili.
The ruling Georgian Dream party head Irakli Kobakhidze says that former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili served Russian interests in Georgia for nine years when he was in power and 'now he is where he belongs.’ "He handed over 20% of our country's territories to the Russian Federation. He came to Georgia to continue working with Russia", Kobakhidze said.
In a letter from a Rustavi detention facility ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili says all criminal accusations against him are false. Addressing the Georgian population, Saakashvili says when he ‘left everything in Kyiv’ and arrived in Georgia he was aware that ‘most probably’ he would have been detained.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has stated that she will never pardon former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who has been arrested on October 1 in Tbilisi. She noted that the rule of law requires detention of Saakashvili saying that ‘before the law all are equal.’
Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and Ukrainian MP from the ruling Servant of the People party Liza Yasko have announced their relationship on Facebook earlier this evening. Yasko, 31, posted a video on her Facebook page with Saakashvili in which the ex-president of Georgia, who was detained by Georgian law enforcement just several hours ago, said that he had created a new family with Yasko.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced at a briefing in Truskavets, Ukraine today that he will work to bring Ukrainian citizen and former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, currently detained in Georgia, back to Ukraine using "various means".
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, will be able to leave the country only after he serves his prison sentence.
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani has stated earlier today that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ‘possibly’ violated the Ukrainian legislature by crossing its border illegally. Zalkaliani noted that before Saakashvili became a Ukrainian citizen ‘he was the president and a citizen of Georgia and has been charged in accordance with Georgian legislation.’