Mikheil Saakashvili, the currently imprisoned third President of Georgia, on Wednesday said he was in a “new stage of struggle”, deeming himself as “needed” both for Georgia and Ukraine in his birthday message. 

In his social media post, the former official, who was arrested on his clandestine return from Ukraine in 2021, claimed “Now I am 56 years old. I feel absolutely as young as I was in 2021. I know that the enemy of Georgia wants to destroy me and I will do everything to prevent it from happening”. 

"I returned to Georgia at the age of 53, still young and full of energy, today I turned 56. The boundless love of my people and land in Georgia and the great pain of seeing how everything we created is falling apart, how what we started has stopped. I knew I was going to get caught, but that didn't stop me.What is my life like today?

Every day, my 77-year-old mother drives at least two hours to bring me food, despite the fact that she herself is very difficult, she tries not to notice her plight and here to cheer me up, she always comes in the morning with a smile with a package in her hand. He had come to Kyiv to convince me and change my mind. I sneaked out of the house and left anyway. All these months and years, I have never once heard a rebuke from her.

My arrival was a heavy burden for 15-year-old Nikusha [his son]. This is a critical age and I could see how much psychological stress it was for him and how bravely he coped with it. He developed amazing analytical skills, gave me very deep and interesting advice during the last meeting. The main thing that makes me happy is that both Eduard and Nikusha told me that my arrival here was not a mistake and they are proud of their father.

3.5-year-old Aliska [his daughter] tells everyone that daddy is very busy at work and therefore cannot come to see her. However, she quietly confided to her mother that I want to go to her and hug her, but "bad men" are preventing me.

Even though the circle of people I'm allowed to visit is extremely limited and I'm not allowed to make phone calls, I know I'm not alone. Hundreds of thousands of people in Georgia and Ukraine along with millions of people sympathize and support me. This is what caused me physical violence, poisoning, a sharp change in the rhythm of life.

I saw many things better. I am happy that very few people disappointed me, and on the contrary, many people performed very well and pleasantly surprised me. New supporters and friends also appeared. I am very touched by how Ukraine, its leader and many Ukrainians stood by me. I was pleasantly surprised by how many positive articles were written about me and our reforms in the world press. By very serious world figures, it turned out that I had much more fans in the world than I imagined, and I hope that this helps my adoring Georgia as well.

I believe that I was born to win and we, all together, will defeat hopelessness and even the thought of failure," Saakashvili wrote.