Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha says Russia ‘weaponising deportation of Ukrainians by Georgia’
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has sharply criticised Russia over the ongoing detention of Ukrainians by Georgian authorities at the Upper Lars border checkpoint.
Around 90 Ukrainians who have been deported from Russia are reportedly being kept in a windowless basement by the border, as Georgian officials have said that they cannot enter the country, as they are lacking documents and that some are criminals.
‘Russia is weaponising the deportation of Ukrainian citizens through Georgia. We propose that Russia transport them directly to the Ukrainian border instead’, Sybiha wrote on X.
‘Ukrainian consuls are actively working to provide them with documents and transport them to Ukraine via Moldova’, he said, adding that ‘We are actively working with the Georgian and Moldovan sides to get the rest of our people transited to Ukraine. However, there is no guarantee that Russia will not increase the number of deportees even further’.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi also weighed in on the issue, saying that he had heard from Sybiha about how ‘Ukrainian citizens who are being effectively “dumped” from Russian territory without documents and without prior notice to either Ukraine or the Georgian side’.
‘In particular, these are Ukrainians released by Russians from prisons and penal colonies in Russia-controlled territory. Ukrainian diplomats are arranging the transit of these citizens of our state back to Ukraine’.
Separately, a group of the detained Ukrainians staged a protest at the border on Saturday, demanding to be able to enter the duty free area at the checkpoint so they could buy water, the Telegram account Astra reported. They also urged authorities to provide more medical care and separate those who are sick into another living area.
One of those detained told Astra that he saw a protester being handcuffed and beaten by Georgian border guards. The allegations could not be independently verified.
OC Media
