UKRAINE: Former Georgian President Mikheil Saaksashvili tells the world to act before Russia invades Ukraine

Record ID: 643478

  • Title: UKRAINE: Former Georgian President Mikheil Saaksashvili tells the world to act before Russia invades Ukraine
  • Date: 8th August 2014
  • Summary: LVIV, UKRAINE (AUGUST 8, 2014) (REUTERS) PEOPLE GATHERED OUTSIDE OF CHURCH PRIESTS STANDING ON STEPS VARIOUS OF FORMER GEORGIAN PRESIDENT, MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI, AND LVIV MAYOR ANDRIY SADOVYI, WALKING DOWN STREET AND INTO CHURCH VARIOUS OF SAAKASHVILI IN CHURCH PRIESTS PRAYER BOOK PRIEST IN FRONT OF ICON ICON ON VIRGIN MARY SAAKASHVILI AND SADOVYI LIGHTING CANDLES SAAKASHVILI AND SADOVYI WALKING OUT OF CHURCH SAAKASHVILI AND SADOVYI TALKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER GEORGIAN PRESIDENT, MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI, SAYING: "Right now Russia is acting in Ukraine exactly like Russia was acting in Georgia in the 90s. We had several years of military conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the moment when Russia starts to understand that Ukraine is winning which it is now, there will be a moment when Russia will act like - might become a moment - when it will act like 2008. That is to say direct, all-out invasion, which partly is already there. So to prevent that, the world should act beforehand." PRIESTS SAAKASHVILI AND SADOVYI WALKING DOWN STREET
  • Embargoed: 23rd August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAXTRFGJ18SZH6P0OG5JHZF56S
  • Story Text: Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Friday (August 8) called on the world to "act beforehand" to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine.
    He made the comment outside of a church in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv where he and the city's mayor commemorated the sixth anniversary of the 2008 Russian-Georgian war.
    The five-day war took lives of more than 500 people and left tens of thousands Georgian nationals as internally displaced people living in government-built settlements.
    Russia crushed a Georgian assault on South Ossetia launched after days of clashes between Georgian and rebel forces and years of growing tensions between Moscow and U.S. ally Tbilisi.
    Saakashvili drew comparisons to that war and Russia's involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where government forces are battling pro-Russian separatists.
    The Kiev government and its Western allies accuse Russia of seeking to destabilise Ukraine and arming the rebels, who have declared independent "people's republics" in the two main industrial regions. Moscow denies involvement.
    "Right now Russia is acting in Ukraine exactly like Russia was acting in Georgia in the 90s. We had several years of military conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the moment when Russia starts to understand that Ukraine is winning which it is now, there will be a moment when Russia will act like - might become a moment - when it will act like 2008. That is to say direct, all-out invasion, which partly is already there. So to prevent that, the world should act beforehand," Saakashvili said.
    In the biggest Russia-West confrontation since the end of the Cold War, the United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia. Moscow has retaliated with a sweeping ban on imports of many Western foodstuffs.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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