Parliament Speaker to Ukraine’s Georgian diaspora: Georgia “on frontlines” of Ukraine war

The war in Ukraine “must end as soon as possible”, and the “human tragedies we see in the 21st century must be stopped”, Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, said on Monday in a remote meeting with representatives of Georgian diaspora organisations in Ukraine.

In the meeting, Papuashvili spoke about the specific steps being taken by the Georgian legislative and executive authorities to support Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, and highlighted the heightened tensions in the Black Sea region caused by the conflict.

This war must end as soon as possible. The human tragedies we see in the middle of Europe in the 21st century must be stopped,” Papuashvili said to the diaspora members while also telling them Georgia’s “support for Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, [the country’s] territorial integrity and sovereignty is strong and unequivocal”.

The Parliament Speaker told the meeting Georgia “may not have financial resources like big countries have, but, like all other countries, we have a vote in international organisations and platforms, and we use that one vote firmly in support of Ukraine”.

In his comments, the Georgian Parliament official said the war “increases the risks in the region” and added the administrative boundary line separating the Georgian-controlled territory from its Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) represented an extension of the “frontline” of the Ukraine conflict.

Georgia, both literally and figuratively, is on the front line. The so-called administrative line of our occupied territories is exactly the front line, and in this regard there are great risks that there may be a military confrontation in Georgia as well,” Papuashvili said.