Georgian Dream have begun a campaign of electoral ads using images of buildings destroyed by Russia in Ukraine under the caption ‘choose peace’, including the aftermath of the deadly Mariupol Drama Theatre bombing.

Banners were first spotted in Tbilisi on Thursday with images of destroyed buildings and infrastructure in Ukraine alongside the electoral numbers of opposition groups and the caption ‘no to war’, next to pictures of intact Georgian buildings marked with the ruling party’s own electoral number, 41, and the caption ‘choose peace’.

The party also released a campaign video with a number of the images.

One of the banners spotted in Tbilisi showed the burnt remains of the Mariupol Drama Theatre, marked with the numbers 4, 5, 9, and 25 — the electoral numbers of the opposition Coalition for Change, Unity — National Movement, Strong Georgia, and For Georgia respectively. The contrasting image of a theatre in the western Georgian town of Senaki had Georgian Dream’s electoral number, 41, and was captioned with ‘Choose peace!’.

The Mariupol Drama Theatre was struck by Russian forces in March 2022 during the siege of the city. At the time it was being used as a shelter for civilians, something that was clearly marked. An investigation by the Associated Press suggested around 600 people were killed in the strike.

Another banner contrasted images of Mariupol in ruins with an image of the Georgian Black Sea coastal city of Batumi in city lights, both with similar captions.

Another included an image of the ruins of a destroyed church in Bohorodychne, a village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The image was similarly contrasted with a photo of the Sameba Cathedral in Tbilisi. Both contained the same numbers and captions.

Individuals associated with the ruling party, including Davit Zaalishvili, the chair of Borjomi, and Natia Beridze, a pro-government media propagandist, have shared additional images of the posters involving comparisons between war-torn Ukraine and Georgia. These images, contrasting Ukrainian and Georgian swimming pools or motorways, suggest that the posters may soon appear as banners on the streets of Georgia.

All installed and online banners had Ukraine-related images in black and white.

‘With dignity towards hell!’ 

The images have caused widespread outrage online.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili was among the first to react to the new banners. 

‘I have never seen anything so shameful, so insulting to our culture, traditions, history, and faith…’, Zourabichvili wrote on her personal Facebook page. ‘How desperate and pitiful must you be to shamelessly and brazenly offer your people a poster crafted in the “forges of the KGB”! “With dignity” towards hell!’, she wrote.

Despite the EU having suspended Georgia’s EU application process over their passage of the foreign agent law and other anti-democratic measures, the ruling party previously ran election ads under the slogan ‘to Europe with dignity’.

The upcoming 26 October parliamentary vote has been framed by the ruling Georgian Dream party as a choice between war and peace. 

This narrative stems from their broader claim of having run the country for 12 years without involving it in armed conflict, contrasting it with the formerly ruling United National Movement, whom they accuse of provoking Russia into invading Georgia in the 2008 August War.

They have also repeatedly claimed that a ‘party of war’ is controlling Western governments and trying to force Georgia to open a ‘second front’ against Russia.

Earlier this month, Georgian Dream began running the election ad online and on TV with similar messaging, featuring the slogans ‘no to war!’ and ‘choose peace’. The ad, at that time, did not include any clear reference to Ukraine, offering instead an image of war-torn ruins with a road sign saying ‘Tskhinvali’, the capital of South Ossetia.