Saakashvili promises to "sweep clean" Rada, Cabinet

Mikheil Saakashvili, who has recently announced his resignation as Odesa regional governor, says he is determined to move to Kyiv to be involved in the nationwide political process.

"I am going to Kyiv so as to liberate Ukraine and Odesa [...] and sweep clean the Rada, the Cabinet, and the [presidential] secretariat," Saakashvili said while meeting with members of the public in Odesa on Tuesday.

The politician is convinced that representatives of the criminal world are now ruling in Ukraine and Odesa in particular, and they should be removed from governing the country and the city. "I am taking a pause to return with a big project and big money," he said.

Saakashvili acknowledged that some of the initiatives and projects announced or launched during his tenure as Odesa regional governor have not been implemented, as numerous promises of support voiced by President Petro Poroshenko have remained only words. He said he personally felt ashamed to have been unable to deliver on a lot of his promises.