Ukraine's Foreign Minister on situation with Saakashvili: Everything has reached boiling point, they want him to die

Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, criticised the actions of the Georgian authorities regarding the Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili, whom Tbilisi does not let go abroad for treatment, and announced the summons of the Georgian ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Source: Kuleba on air of the national joint 24/7 newscast on Monday evening.

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that after the posting of footage from today's court session regarding Saakashvili, where he has an extremely malnourished and exhausted appearance, "everything reached a boiling point", causing Kyiv to take a "drastic but fair step".

Quote: "When the state is dissatisfied with something, the first level of reaction is to express a protest. The second level of reaction is to recall its ambassador for consultations," Kuleba said.

"And the third level of reaction, several levels higher in severity, is to ask the ambassador of this country to leave Ukraine for consultations with his government. In diplomacy, this is an extremely harsh form, but the Georgian government deserves it," he added.

The minister announced that the ambassador of Georgia would be summoned on Tuesday morning, after which he would "have an appropriate conversation".

"And he should consult with his government, actually, about where Georgia is going and why they are destroying Georgian-Ukrainian relations and what they should do to save them," he noted.

According to Kuleba, the Georgian authorities "really want him [Saakashvili – ed.] to die" due to personal hatred and revenge, acting according to the "old Stalinist method of 'No man – no problem'" [this quote is mistakenly attributed to Stalin – ed.].

"If they [Georgia's authorities – ed.] consider Saakashvili a threat to domestic politics – let him leave Georgia, let him live a peaceful life in Ukraine or another country in the world. And continue to live there, continue to get closer to Russia, if you so wish. But we see a blind, simply draconian policy – to let him die," the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs concluded.

Background: Saakashvili has been in custody since his secret return to Georgia on the eve of local elections in 2021, and recently his health condition has significantly deteriorated.

On 3 July, the imprisoned former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili took part in a court hearing for the first time since February, through a video connection from the Vivamed clinic. He looks extremely exhausted.

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