SUKHUM, July 20. /TASS/. The Russian military presence in Abkhazia is subject to bilateral agreements with Moscow, it complies with international law and in no way affects the territory of Georgia, let alone Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry of Abkhazia said in a commentary on Tuesday following a trip to Georgia by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who also visited the Georgia-Abkhazia border along the Enguri River.
According to Ukrainian media, Zelensky called the republic ‘temporarily occupied’ and alleged that "the Russian military presence is being built up there, and human rights are being violated". Furthermore, Zelensky maintained that Ukraine and Georgia saw eye-to-eye on the return of ‘the temporarily occupied territories’ at the platforms of leading global and regional organizations.
"The Russian military presence in the Republic of Abkhazia, which worries Zelensky so much, is regulated by bilateral Abkhazian-Russian agreements, it is in line with international law and in no way affects the territory of Georgia let alone Ukraine. It will apparently remain a mystery, what the Ukrainian president implied, when he referred to the violation of human rights," the Foreign Ministry said in its commentary.
"One shouldn’t try to find any logic or common sense in this initiative of the Zelensky team, unless we take into account the Ukrainian leader’s desire to demonstrate to his voters a far-fetched image of ‘a crusader against the occupiers’. Or has Zelensky in earnest decided to share with the Georgian authorities his own formulas for resolving and improving the security situation?" the Foreign Ministry went on to say.
"The Ukrainian leaders as well as their Georgian colleagues should remember that waging bets on confrontation has no chance of success, while attempts to revise the achieved agreements or block the coordinated decisions have no prospects," it stressed. "Unless revenge is rejected and the current political realities are accepted, it will be impossible to launch the process of a full-scale settlement," the ministry emphasized.
"All other political maneuvers, no matter what well intentions would be given as the reason, are nothing more than attempts to dodge the solution to the problem," the commentary stated.