The opposition and Georgian Dream can not agree on Zelensky’s parliamentary address
Lelo for Georgia party announced that President Zelensky would address the Georgian parliament on their initiative. Khatia Dekanoidze, chair of the UNM faction, said that President Zelensky was ready to address the Georgian public from the Georgian parliament.
The parliamentary majority does not agree with the initiative. The Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Shalva Papuashvili said that the initiative was addressed to the Parliament not by President Zelensky, but by Lelo and the National Movement. “I emphasize once again that the Georgian Dream will not even consider any of the UNM and Lelo initiatives concerning Ukraine.” – He said.
Papuashvili accused the opposition of trying to “mess up the situation” and said that their goal was to “drag Georgia into something that would be ‘irreparable.’”
Three Georgian fighters were killed in Ukraine
Three Georgian volunteers were killed in the fight against full-scale Russian intervention in Ukraine.
Gia Beriashvili and Davit Ratiani were killed on March 18, northwest of Kyiv, on the Irpin front, while defending the Ukrainian capital from the Russian invasion.
“Dato [David Ratiani] lived like a hero and died like a hero. He was assisting a French soldier who had a broken leg to reach the assembly point. He died on the spot as a result of a mine explosion,” – Ratiani’s friend, journalist Alexei Bobrovnikov wrote on Facebook.
On March 19, in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi, citizens honoured the memory of Beriashvili and Ratiani.
On the same day it was reported that another Georgian fighter in Ukraine, 54-year-old Bakhva Chikobava, had died in the besieged city of Mariupol. Until 2012, Bakhva Chikobava was the head of the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Regional Division of the Special Tasks Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Ukrainian embassy in Tbilisi responded to the death of Georgian fighters in Ukraine, saying: “Heroes will not die. Ukraine will always remember its heroic defenders.”
The European-Georgian Institute extends its condolences to the family of the deceased.
Russia sent troops from Tskhinvali to Ukraine
Units of Russia’s 4th military base in the occupied Tskhinvali region, including local contractors, left for the war against Ukraine on March 16.
A video released by the Telegram channel – “Vladikavkaz News“, which was allegedly recorded near the North Ossetian city of Alagiri, shows about 13 tanks and 7 armored vehicles.
According to the channel, the convoy arrived from the Tskhinvali region. The video also shows the so-called South Ossetia flag.
Ekho Kavkaza reports that Tskhinvali residents have criticized regional leader Anatoly Bibilov on social media for sending Ossetian contractors to the war, accusing him of integrating the so-called South Ossetian armed forces into the Russian Armed Forces.
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