TBILISI, May 27. /TASS/. Representatives of certain countries privately urged Georgia to send its military to Ukraine, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said.
"Were demands placed on some country [to send military to Ukraine]? Whether from its own citizens, or Ukraine, or someone else? And it saw both open calls, and also behind closed doors some friends and foes were pushing us to do this, to get the Georgian authorities to send troops to Ukraine, which would mean outright war," Papuashvili told reporters.
The speaker emphasized that no NATO country had officially sent its military to Ukraine and it was not clear why Georgia was being asked to do this. According to the top parliamentarian, Georgia was being dragged into military actions both directly and through attempts to lasso it into supporting anti-Russian sanctions. Non-governmental organizations were also trying to get the Georgian authorities to send its military to Ukraine, staging rallies in Tbilisi toward this end, Papuashvili said. "This amounts to entering into a direct war with Russia," the parliament speaker emphasized.
On February 25, 2022, former Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that he had no plans to impose sanctions against Russia, citing national interests. This prompted tensions in relations between Tbilisi and Kiev. In March 2022, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky recalled Ambassador to Georgia Igor Dolgov over what he called "the immoral position" of the Georgian authorities.