Ex-President of Georgia, former head of Ukraine's Odesa Regional State Administration Mikheil Saakashvili, who planned to arrive in Ukraine on April 1, explained that he was going to do this if incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had failed to get into a run-off.

Asked by a host of TV Channel Current Time whether his plans to fly to Ukraine on April 1 remained in force, Saakashvili said: "No, I said from the very beginning: I thought Poroshenko would not go to the second round and I would fly. (...) If he had failed, I would have arrived."

He clarified that as soon as Poroshenko "loses power and his order not to let me enter the country loses force (this is beyond doubt)," then Saakashvili will definitely take advantage of "the legal right to return to Ukraine."

"I have a clear desire to come to Kyiv, to see Odesa again ... to see my friends," he said.

As reported, Saakashvili told a Ukrainian media outlet in March that he would fly to Ukraine on April 1, as he was confident that Poroshenko would lose the March 31 presidential elections, therefore no one would block Saakashvili's arrival in the country. To prove his plans, he showed an online ticket on the screen of his smartphone.

Spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Oleh Slobodian explained that the ban on Saakashvili's entry into Ukraine is in force until 2021.