Claims Georgia refused to join PACE resolution on Ukrainian children part of “dirty, fake campaign” - ruling party MP
MP Givi Mikanadze on Tuesday rejected claims Tbilisi had refused to join the PACE resolution on Ukraine adopted last month. Photo: Parliament press office
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Givi Mikanadze, an MP of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday rejected claims by domestic opposition and several Ukrainian lawmakers that Tbilisi had refused to join a resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Ukrainian children’s forced transfer to Russia amid the ongoing war as a “part of a dirty, fake campaign”.
In his comments to the media, the lawmaker explained the Georgian delegation had bought return tickets from Strasbourg weeks in advance and had departed the city a day before the vote.
He also said Tbilisi had joined “all resolutions and declarations” in support of Ukraine since the country’s invasion by Russia last year, and supported the resolution in question during the PACE Monitoring Committee session.
The MP said the Georgian Government was ready to support the forthcoming pro-Ukrainian declaration during the PACE Summit in Reykjavik in May, where he said top officials from 46 states would be present.
He also accused the Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko - who last week accused Tbilisi of failing to support the resolution and called for sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party and former Prime Minister - of being involved in “this dirty and fake campaign”.
In the resolution, the PACE recognised the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia during the conflict as genocide and demanded their safe return, prevention of new deportations, and prosecution of all individuals responsible.
The Assembly also called on the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to collect data on Ukrainian children illegally deported to Russia.
The resolution came following the International Criminal Court ruling in March to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the country’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.