Georgian justice minister: Ukrainian president advisor’s vows to “save Georgia” with troops “criminal”

Georgian justice minister Rati Bregadze on Friday said this week’s vow by Oleksiy Arestovych, the adviser to the office of the president of Ukraine, to “free and save Georgia” with use of troops after his country defeated Russia in the ongoing conflict was of “criminal nature” and contradicted international law. 

Calling Arestovych’s claims “sad and incomprehensible”, the Georgian official advised the Ukrainian politician to “take a good look” at international law, saying doing so would have prevented the advisor from “making such criminal claims”. 

Georgia is doing its best to stand by the Ukrainian people through ensuring humanitarian aid [and providing support in] all international platforms. It is very sad and incomprehensible for this person to make such a statement, which can be safely said to be of criminal nature", Bregadze said. 

• FM says Georgia supports Ukraine in “political, diplomatic, humanitarian directions”

Arestovych made the remark in a YouTube discussion on Thursday, stating after Ukraine gained an advantage in the war against Russia it should switch to “help Georgia”, dubbing the current Georgian Dream authorities as “pro-Russian” and claiming they had “undermined the achievements” of the currently imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili. 

In response to journalist questions over “300,000 Russians” having entered Georgia since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine in late February, the presidential advisor said the development was “a disaster” and a “major security challenge” for Georgia. 

“We [Ukrainians] will project power there - we will have to save Georgians, Moldova, Armenia, save everyone. This is a good story, because there will always be jobs for millions of our combatants in the near future in the post-Soviet space. Peacekeepers, stabilisation operations, humanitarian operations [and] others", he told the interview.