Ruling party Executive Secretary: Georgian parliamentary majority MPs “ready to visit Ukraine”

Representatives of the Georgian parliamentary majority would be ready to visit Ukraine after technicalities for a trip to the country are resolved, Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said on Monday.

Responding to a recent invitation by the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Georgian authorities to visit locations where Russian troops have committed atrocities, Mdinaradze said a visit could take place “when the issue is agreed in protocol”. 

The ruling party member said “several members” of the parliamentary majority would be ready to visit Ukraine for the purpose.

Mdinaradze also commented on the response from the Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili to his counterpart from the Verkhovna Rada on a recent invitation to Bucha, where invading Russian forces have been reported to have committed atrocities.

The Georgian Dream party official said his Government had not received an answer to “any of the issues” raised in Papuashvili's response to the invitation. 

Papuashvili had said Ukrainian authorities’ "request [for Georgia] to open a second front [against Russia], diplomatic demarches [by Ukrainian officials], and unfounded accusations on [Georgia] creating smuggling channels for sanctioned products for Russia" went contrary to the invitation.

With the response, Papuashvili on April 8 declined the invitation of his Ukrainian counterpart to visit Bucha, saying it would be “inappropriate” on the backdrop of the grievances listed in the reply.

Papuashvili still stressed the Georgian Government was using “all international platforms” for providing “legal and political assessment” of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.