'Hands off Ukraine and Georgia': solidarity rally held outside Ukrainian Embassy in Tbilisi

Opposition Girchi - More Freedom party organized a rally in solidarity with Ukraine amidst concerns caused by the recent movement of Russian troops’ near the eastern Donbass region. 

Leader of the Girchi party Zurab Japaridze said the rally is both a demonstration of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, as well as a sign of dissatisfaction with the lack of appropriate response from the Georgian government, which Japaridze described as a 'policy of trying not to upset Russia'. 

Both us [Georgia] and Ukraine are strategic partners in the sense that we are both moving towards the West, towards a world of freedom, we both want to become members of NATO and the European Union. But because our aspirations are going west, we [both] have problems with our northern neighbor”, Zurab Japaridze told the Georgian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL). 

Japaridze added that whenever 'Georgia was in trouble', Ukraine stood by it, and reinstated that now is the time for Georgia to do the same for Ukraine. 

The leader of the Droa political movement, Elene Khoshtaria, who also joined the solidarity rally, told Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty that the ongoing escalation is a matter of a future, both for Ukraine, Georgia and the region as a whole.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Georgia, Igor Dolgov, who also attended the rally, thanked the people of Georgia for standing in solidarity with Ukraine: 

Thank you very much for your support. We appreciate you standing by our side and we believe that together we will overcome [current] threats”, Ambassador Dolgov said. 

The concerns have grown in Ukraine and in the international community amidst the reports of Russia amassing its armed forces close to the Ukrainian border. 

The military build-up has raised fears of a possible Russian offensive that could push beyond the areas of eastern Ukraine which is currently under Russian control. 

Amidst the growing tensions, Georgian Ambassador Teimuraz Sharashenidze is to return to Ukraine after a year-long recall.

Earlier last week Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani had a phone conversation with his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba, in which he expressed concerns over the situation in Eastern Ukraine and reinstated the importance of the international community’s involvement in the de-escalation of ongoing tensions.