Georgian lawmaker Alexander (Aleko) Elisashvili, the Citizens party leader, has announced about joining Ukraine’s fight against Russian invasion.
“Now Ukraine [and] Ukrainians, our well-wishers in times of both joy and sorrow, face ordeal. Fighting against our common enemy,” Elisashvili said in a brief Facebook post on March 13.
“I couldn’t just observe this fight from afar. That’s why I’m here, in Ukraine. A volunteer in a foreign legion of fighters,” he continued.
“We shall defeat the enemy,” MP Elisashvili wrote.
Russia began unprovoked full-scale attack of Ukraine on February 24, shortly after recognizing the independence of its proxies in Donetsk and Luhansk.
The Kremlin denies Russian invasion, preferring to call it “special military operation” to “demilitarize and denizify” the southwestern neighbor.
Many Georgians, having seen Russia’s invasion and occupation of Georgia in 2008, are strongly backing Ukraine. A recent public opinion survey found 87% of respondents in Georgia saying “Ukraine’s war is our war too.”
Alexander Elisashvili – former Tbilisi preservationist activist and journalist — was elected to the Parliament of Georgia through October 2020 parliamentary elections.
Previously, in 2017, he landed second unexpectedly in Tbilisi mayoral race, while in 2014 he was elected as independent majoritarian in Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo). Before that he chaired the presidential pardon commission from November 2013 to April 2014.