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Saakashvili reveals plans to come to Kiev on September 19

He said it at a rally in the southwestern Ukrainian city of Chernovtsi, which he called the starting point of his tour of Ukrainian cities

KIEV, September 14. /TASS/. Former Georgian president, former governor of Ukraine's Odessa region Mikhail Saakashvili, said on Wednesday he planned to come to Kiev on September 19.

He said it at a rally in the southwestern Ukrainian city of Chernovtsi, which he called the starting point of his tour of Ukrainian cities.

"I'll go to several more cities and then we'll move to Kiev," Saakashvili said. "On September 19, that is the Day of the Archangel Michael as far as I know. He is the guardian of Kiev. And there's an urgent need to save Kiev."

The former country president and regional governor who was stripped of Ukrainian citizenship managed to cross over to Ukraine from Poland earlier after several abortive attempts to do so.

At first he planned to cross the border at the Krakovets checkpoint but then changed his plan in order to avoid provocations and tried to enter Ukraine by Przemysl-Kiev train. However, the Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsya blocked the departure of the train.

Several hours after that, Saakashvili and his supporters headed for the Shegini-Medyka checkpoint by bus but the Ukrainian authorities closed it under the pretext a bomb had been planted there.

As a result, at around 20:00 East European Summer Time about 50 supporters of the flamboyant politician broke through the cordon and smuggled Saakashvili into the Ukrainian territory.

During the breakthrough, a total of 22 Ukrainian policemen received injuries. Police instituted criminal cases against Saakashvili for an illegal crossing of the state border, resistance to the forces of law and order and hooliganism in the western city of Lvov where Saakashvili had come to synchronize plans with his fellow-partisans.

Saakashvili, whose extradition Georgia is seeking on charges with a number of crimes, received Ukrainian citizenship in May 2015. Later on, he was appointed governor of the Odessa region. After a bumpy governorship that was marked by resounding scandals, he tendered resignation in November 2016, founded a political party of his own and started leveling sharp criticism at the authorities.

President Poroshenko revoked his Ukrainian citizenship on July 26, 2017, when the combative Saakashvili was visiting the U.S.

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