Ukrainian MP Goncharenko involved in “dirty, fake campaign” against Georgia – ruling party MP

Givi Mikanadze, an MP of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday accused Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko of being involved in a “dirty and fake campaign” against Georgia, for his comments last week that Tbilisi had refused to join the PACE resolution on Russia’s illegal deportation of Ukrainian children during the ongoing conflict. 

 

In his media remarks, Mikanadze claimed the Georgian delegation had to leave Strasbourg a day before the vote because of the previously planned flight, but managed to support the recognition of the deportation as genocide during the session of the PACE Monitoring Commitee. 

 

He also said the Georgian government had joined “all resolutions and declarations” in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity since the launch of hostilities in February last year, and noted Tbilisi had also expressed its readiness to join the forthcoming declaration in support of the country in mid-May in Reykjavik. 

 

Along with rejecting the claims, the MP expressed his surprise how Goncharenko could find time amid the ongoing conflict to comment on Georgian issues, before pointing to “question marks” on his relatives alleged wrongdoings in Ukraine. 

 

In his tweet last week, the Ukrainian MP also called for sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party and the former PM, whom the part of domestic opposition and several Ukrainian officials describe as a “shadow ruler”.