11:26 17.08.2017

Saakashvili says he will travel to Ukraine from Poland on Sept 10

3 min read
Saakashvili says he will travel to Ukraine from Poland on Sept 10

Former President of Georgia, ex-governor of the Odesa Regional State Administration, Mikheil Saakashvili, has announced that he will return to Ukraine on September 10.

"I am returning to Ukraine. I will arrive on September 10. I will travel from Poland through the Krakowiec checkpoint [Lviv region]," he said during a live broadcast on his Facebook page on Wednesday night.

The politician expressed hope that his supporters would gather at the checkpoint.

"There will be a lot of journalists, deputies, and ordinary people will also join us. Ukrainians who live in Poland want to accompany me - there are a lot of them [...] I will be very grateful if people come to the border," he said.

Saakashvili supposed that an intensified screening of citizens crossing the border could be organized due to the fact that he is expected to arrive in Ukraine.

He also announced his intention to participate in court trial on the return of his Ukrainian citizenship.

The politician said that there are no grounds for his detention at the crossing of the Ukrainian border, and added that even if the relevant decree of the Ukrainian president is in effect, he is still a resident of Ukraine. "If I am a person without Ukrainian citizenship, then I am a stateless person living in Ukraine," he said.

According to Saakashvili, in Ukraine he has left modest property and the Movement of New Forces party.

He also said that after returning to Ukraine he intends to propose an agenda for changes in the country.

As it was reported, on July 26, 2017, the Ukrainian Migration Service announced that Poroshenko had signed a decree depriving Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship.

On August 4 it became known that Saakashvili arrived in Poland. On August 7, Saakashvili said that he had unimpeded access to Poland with the Ukrainian passport. The former Georgian president was invited to Warsaw to take part in the celebration of the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

On August 8, Polish Radio ZET reported that Saakashvili had left Poland and headed for Lithuania. Saakashvili said in Vilnius that he was not going to seek a Lithuanian citizenship, although he was grateful for such a proposal from some Lithuanian politicians.

On August 11, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Yevhen Yenin said that Mikheil Saakashvili would be able to enter Ukraine only if he has a Ukrainian visa.

"Permission for Saakashvili (currently a non-citizen if information that he has a passport issued in third countries is not confirmed) to enter Ukraine will be possible only if a visa is issued to him. Any performances in the midst of his activists or illegal crossing of the border give 100% legal grounds to impose administrative penalties on him and launch criminal prosecution against persons who will facilitate such illegal crossing of the border (and don't say then that you have not been warned)," Yenin said on his Facebook page.

He also added that Saakashvili may appeal the decision to revoke his Ukrainian citizenship with the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine.

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