Georgian PM: Ukraine needs to review decision on recalling Ambassador

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Monday called on the Ukrainian Government to review its 2022 decision on recalling the country’s Ambassador from Georgia, calling the move “extremely unfriendly”.

Kobakhidze was asked by the media about the appointment of the Ambassador of Ukraine to Georgia, and claimed the Ukrainian authorities had named Georgia’s non-imposition of sanctions on Russia and refusal of the Georgian Government to “send volunteers” to serve in Ukraine’s defence from the Russian invasion as the reasons for the recall of the country’s diplomat two years ago.

You are aware that the [domestic] opposition publicly states today that it would be incorrect to impose sanctions on Russia. Now, two years later, they are repeating our messages”, he noted in reference to an alleged change from the opposition’s original criticism of the Government for its refusal to impose sanctions on the country following the invasion of Ukraine.

He also claimed the motives behind the recall were “later openly talked about by high-ranking officials of the Ukrainian Government”, while alleging Oleksiy Danilov, the former Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, and Mykhailo Podolyak, the Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, had “openly called on the Georgian Government to open a second front” of the conflict.

Kobakhidze added his Government remained in a “one-sided friendship mode with the Ukrainian people” on the back of decisions by their country’s authorities.