Tbilisi Accuses Kyiv of Delaying Return of Ukrainians to Homeland

Georgia is ready to pay for the transportation of 87 Ukrainians who are at the Dariali checkpoint to their homeland, but Ukraine is delaying the process, the Georgian Interior Ministry said. 44 people left for Ukraine in July, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said and called on Russia to deliver former convicts directly to the border of the two countries.

As "Caucasian Knot" wrote, five Ukrainian citizens have gone on a hunger strike at the Georgian Dariali checkpoint, complaining that they are not being allowed into the country. The hunger strikers demanded that the Ukrainian consul be allowed to see them, that they be given the opportunity to leave Georgia or apply for international protection. After meeting with the Ukrainian consul, Ukrainian citizens who are at the Georgian border checkpoint "Dariali" ended their hunger strike.

 Georgian authorities are ready to pay expenses and provide any other assistance for the speedy return to Ukraine of its citizens stuck at the Georgian border checkpoint "Dariali" after being deported from Russia, said Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia Alexander Darakhvelidze. "We appeal to the relevant Ukrainian authorities with a request to immediately take measures to ensure the return of their citizens to Ukraine. The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs once again expresses its full readiness to implement all relevant measures within its competence and to assist the Ukrainian side... including, we are ready to reimburse the costs necessary to return these individuals to their homeland," the agency "Novosti Georgia" reported.

According to him, there are currently 87 people in the neutral zone who do not have valid documents, and many have been convicted of serious or especially serious crimes. Georgia refuses to allow them into the country, citing security threats.

The Georgian side proposed mechanisms for returning these individuals to Ukraine by air or by sea. To resolve the issue, working meetings were held with representatives of the Ukrainian embassy and international organizations, and communications were also held between the police attachés of the countries. However, as Darakhvelidze says, the Ukrainian side has not yet given its final consent to organize their return by charter flights.

"There are suspicions that the Ukrainian side wants these people to remain in the so-called neutral zone for a long time, so that later the Georgian side will be forced to allow them to cross the state border of Georgia. We categorically declare that we will not jeopardize the security and public order of the population of our country," his words are quoted in the publication.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the involvement of the Ukrainian embassies in Georgia and the Republic of Moldova, as well as in cooperation with international humanitarian organizations, continues to work on the issue of returning Ukrainian citizens to their homeland, and the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, distributed by the Ukrainian Embassy in Georgia.

"The humanitarian situation at the Georgian checkpoint "Dariali" on the border with the Russian Federation is under the constant control of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We remind you that over the previous month we managed to organize the departure of 44 Ukrainian citizens from the Dariyali checkpoint. We are working to ensure that the transit of our remaining citizens becomes possible as soon as possible. At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates the call to the Russian side, voiced by Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, to send deported Ukrainian citizens directly to the border of Ukraine with the Russian Federation or Belarus. Ukraine is ready to meet them,” Interpressnews quoted the statement as saying.

In December 2023, a group of Ukrainian citizens, mostly former prisoners, waited for a long time for permission to enter Georgia from Russia. Some of them spent about a month at the checkpoint. According to them, only volunteers provided them with assistance.

In October 2023, seven Ukrainian citizens were forced to spend more than two weeks in the buffer zone on the Russian-Georgian border. Previously, they had served their sentences in the colonies of Kherson; after their release, they were taken to a deportation center in Volgograd and issued orders banning them from entering Russia. While the Georgian authorities refused to let them into the country, volunteers supplied the Ukrainians with food and essential items.

At the end of November of the same year, it became known that the Georgian authorities again refused to let former Ukrainian prisoners into the country. Volunteers managed to get eight Ukrainians through, but another eight people, who had spent more than two weeks at the checkpoint by that time, were left waiting at the border.