Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs is not letting Saakashvili into the country
In a statement published on its website, the Ukrainian State Border Service confirmed that Saakashvili is banned from entering Ukraine. The former president of Georgia said he already bought a ticket to Kyiv.
The former president of Georgia and governor of the Odessa Oblast, Mikhail Saakashvili, has no justification for legal entry into Ukraine, said the press service of the State Border Guard Service.
“In September 2017, the individual in question illegally crossed the state border from Poland to Ukraine as established by the decisions of local and appellate courts,” reads of the State Border Service.
The State Border Guard Service confirmed that Saakashvili’s restriction on entry will remain in effect until February 2021.
“While Poroshenko is president, I don’t expect any other response from the border guard service. That is fine, I can hold out a little longer after so many months of waiting,” Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page.
On Monday night while discussing the election results, Saakashvili said that he had already bought a ticket to Ukraine and requested that the heads of the Security Service and State Border Guard Service of Ukraine lift the entry ban. “I really want to be in Kyiv. As an ordinary citizen and fan of Ukraine, I really want to be part of the big transformation happening within the country,” he said in an interview with the TV channel “Nash. Maxxi TV”.
In February 2018, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine banned Mikhail Saakashvili from entering the country for three years, till February 13, 2021. In July 2017, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree revoking Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship while the latter was in the United States. Subsequently, the disgraced politician received a residence permit in the Netherlands as he is married to a citizen of the country. He considers the entry ban and loss of citizenship to be illegal.