Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel Giorgi Kuparashvili has been appointed commander of the mechanized regiment of the “Azov” unit within Ukraine’s most renowned 3rd Army Corps, Georgia’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page.

According to Saakashvili, Georgians have fought - and continue to fight - in Poland, Spain, the United States, and Ukraine, as they have believed and still believe that this is part of the struggle for Georgia’s freedom.

“Giorgi was an officer in my personal security detail and, after my presidency, when I moved to the United States, he came with me to New York, where he assisted me for several months before we went together to Ukraine.

There, he felt drawn to military service and, together with Andriy Biletsky, was one of the initiators of the formation of ‘Azov,’ where he was responsible for training the troops.

During the siege of Mariupol, he was seriously wounded at Azovstal and was miraculously evacuated by helicopter to Kyiv. After recovering, he returned to ‘Azov,’ where he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander of a highly important regiment.

Giorgi is a достойный successor of Georgian officers serving abroad. Among them were Georgian heroes who fought for Poland, a key commander in Spain—General Amilakhvari—as well as General Shalikashvili in the United States, and now Kuparashvili and his many Georgian comrades fighting in Ukraine.

Georgians have fought in Poland, Spain, the United States, and Ukraine because they have believed and still believe that this is part of the fight for Georgia’s freedom. I want to tell Giorgi and others—Abkhazia and other territories of Georgia still await liberation. It is a blessing that Giorgi survived in Mariupol and has become a truly legendary officer.

Sadly, another officer from my security team and my close friend, Kakha Tilidze, was killed in battle near Zaporizhzhia. It was a great honor for me to know Kakha, Giorgi, Vano Nadiradze, and others. It is thanks in part to these Georgian officers that the Ukrainian Armed Forces, for the first time since the 2022 Kharkiv operation, have now gained a strategic advantage on the front—following the appointment of my friend Mykhailo Fedorov as Defense Minister (his advisor is Goga Tskhakaia),” Saakashvili wrote on social media.