Georgian Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is ‘ungrateful’, both as a person and towards Georgia. The latest criticism of Ukraine and its leaders from the ruling Georgian Dream came in response to a question on Wednesday about Georgia’s vote in favour of a UN resolution supporting Ukraine.
Once close allies, Georgia’s relations with Ukraine have soured in recent years, especially since the beginning of the full-scale war, with Georgian Dream leaders, including Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, routinely castigating the country.
‘In general, Zelenskyi is an ungrateful person. I am not the first to say this. The American president told him to show some gratitude’, Papuashvili said.
‘Zelenskyi shows no gratitude to either America or Georgia. We support the Ukrainian people [...] They should be thankful, but overall, we do not need their gratitude. All of this we do for the Ukrainian people; the ultimate judgment on Zelenskyi will be made by the Ukrainian people themselves’.
Papuashvili’s comments were widely circulated in Russian media.
On Thursday, Ukrainian Parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk hit back, saying he read Papuashvili’s ‘accusation’ with ‘surprise’.
Stefanchuk first wrote in Georgian, ‘The spoken word is not a dagger — you can’t put it back to Georgian’, making an apparent mistake, as the phrase is more often written, ‘a spoken word is not a dagger — you can’t put it back in its sheath’.
He then expressed his appreciation for the Georgian people, calling them a ‘people who know exactly what dignity is’ and highlighting their protests in support of Ukraine as well as the presence of Georgian volunteers fighting alongside Ukrainians.
‘Against this backdrop, voting “for” a UN resolution that speaks of supporting Ukraine and respecting its territorial integrity is certainly no act of charity or heroism. It is the minimum level of decency in 2026’, Stefanchuk wrote.
‘Ukraine does not need moralising lectures from those who act as mouthpieces for the narratives of the “russian [sic] world”. Ukraine needs true allies — those who understand that in the fight against the ruscist [sic] evil, it is not compliments that count, but a firm stance and real support’.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
