Mikheil Saakashvili has confirmed he will return to Ukraine on May 29 and was planning to return to Georgia in the near future.
“I am travelling to Ukraine now, I’ll arrive in Ukraine tomorrow. I will also return to Georgia at the earliest opportunity,” the former Odesa governor and Georgia’s ex-president told the Nash television channel via Skype on May 28.
He thanked President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for reinstating his Ukrainian citizenship and said that he had “no personal political ambitions.”
Asked whether he intended to take his Movement of New Forces to Ukrainian parliamentary elections, Saakashvili said that it was “not officially registered” by the Justice Ministry and that there was “another party with surname Saakashvili.”
“I think that in these elections… the Servant of the People party will win a majority. It seems to me, they should be given a chance, a possibility to win a majority and then take control,” Saakashvili said.
Later he wrote on Facebook: “Tomorrow I am returning home to Kyiv! LOT flight No. 753 Warsawy-Kyiv (Boryspil). Arrival time: 5.15 p.m.!”
As reported, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree revoking Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship in July 2017, while the former Georgian president was in the United States.
On Sept. 10, 2018, Saakashvili crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border backed by his supporters, inciting a clash with border guards and law enforcement officers. On Sept. 22, 2018, the Mostyska District Court in Lviv region found Saakashvili guilty of illegally crossing Ukraine’s state border.
Saakashvili was detained on Feb. 12 of this year in downtown Kyiv near the office of his party Movement of New Forces, taken to Boryspil Airport, and sent to Poland. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that in accordance with court rulings in force, Saakashvili had been in Ukraine illegally and, therefore, “in compliance with all legal formalities” he “was returned to the country of his arrival due to violation of domestic legislation.”
Saakashvili’s lawyer Ruslan Chornolutsky handed Saakashvili’s letter with a request to reinstate his Ukrainian citizenship over to the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on May 22. Saakashvili pointed out that if Zelenskiy had any doubts on whether it was appropriate to reinstate his citizenship, the president could order the head of the State Border Service to lift the ban on his entry to Ukraine so that he would defend his rights at court.
Zelenskiy overturned Poroshenko’s decision to revoke Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship on May 28.
“The Ukrainian president’s decree No. 196 of July 26, 2017 […] shall be amended to exclude the provision on the loss of Ukrainian citizenship by Mikheil Saakashvili,” Zelenskiy’s decree posted on the presidential website said.
Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said there was reason not to let Saakashvili into the country now that his Ukrainian citizenship has been reinstated.
