Ukraine Calls for Russian Troop Withdrawal from Occupied Georgian Territories
By Liza Mchedlidze
Thursday, August 8, 2024
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine issued a statement on the 16th anniversary of the August War, calling on Russia to immediately withdraw its troops from the occupied territories of Georgia.
The statement emphasized that Russia's aggression against Georgia has continued beyond the 2008 war, with ongoing occupation, pressure, propaganda, and other interventions.
"The Russian occupation has turned these regions of Georgia into an unpromising gray zone, where lawlessness prevails and human rights are violated," the statement read.
"Hostilities stopped in August 2008, but Russia's aggression against Georgia did not end here. Moscow continued the so-called Borderization, which means creeping annexation of the territory of Georgia, pressure, propaganda and intervention with other hybrid methods."
Ukraine reaffirmed its support for Georgia's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders. "Ukraine supports the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders and strongly condemns the Kremlin's aggressive policy," the statement continued.
In accordance with the 2008 ceasefire agreement, Ukraine called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Georgian territory and revoke its recognition of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as "independent" states.
Ukraine linked Russia's actions in Georgia to a broader imperial strategy. "Russia's aggression against Georgia, and later against Ukraine, is only an episode of Moscow's long imperial policy, which has no right to exist in the 21st century," the statement reads.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called for international action.
"We are sure that this aggressive policy of the Russian Federation will be stopped only by the joint efforts of the international community, forcing it to leave the temporarily occupied territories of Georgia and Ukraine and to answer to the law all Russian war criminals for the atrocities and crimes committed."
