“Irakli Kobakhidze publicly admitted that substances under the code UN3439 were likely mixed into the water cannon. Under this code, all substances are highly toxic and harmful - people, a horror has happened. This was not a water cannon; it was a jet of chemical substances!” said Nino Lomjaria, Executive Director of Georgia’s European Orbit.

According to Lomjaria, when they were demanding answers from the Ministry of Health about what substances were used against citizens during the dispersal of protests, the ministry responded that they were not interested in this issue.

“We heard something unbelievable. We just heard from Irakli Kobakhidze that last year, the water cannon contained a substance under that same code BBC spoke about. Kobakhidze effectively confirmed that the substance under this code - as BBC said and as leaked information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs suggested - was indeed purchased.

He said that a substance under this code was mixed into the water cannon last year. BBC’s expert said that under this code, Camite is the mildest, and he assumed that Camite was used, because none of the other substances within this code have ever been used anywhere for dispersing citizens. The only one ever used - during World War I - was Camite.

And today, Irakli Kobakhidze publicly admitted that substances under this code were likely mixed. All substances under this code are highly toxic and harmful. The British expert said that all of them are worse than Camite. People, a catastrophe happened. This was not a water cannon - it was a chemical jet! Huge numbers of people sustained physical injuries.

When we asked the Ministry of Health to tell us what substances were used, they responded: ‘We don’t know, we don’t care, it’s not our business.’ They never even bothered to examine what substances poisoned tens of thousands of people,” Lomjaria said.

As a reminder, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that the powder used during the 2024 protests “will undergo analysis.”

He also said that under code UN3439 there are both prohibited and non-prohibited substances, and only non-prohibited ones were procured. The investigation will present full information.

Additionally, when a journalist recalled last year’s statements by the Minister of Internal Affairs and his deputy - who said that a certain substance was mixed into the water cannon - Kobakhidze replied: “As for the mixing of a substance - yes, a substance was mixed. The main issue is whether it was prohibited or not. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has already confirmed that ‘Camite’ was not used - and not only was it not used, the Ministry has never purchased it, including under the United National Movement government.”