“There is a readiness to fix yesterday’s bad relations with anyone if the circumstances allow it. In my opinion, there is a serious deficit of sincerity from the Ukrainian side,” said First Vice-Speaker of Parliament Gia Volski in response to a question about the planned meeting between Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

According to Volski, “their view has not changed at all that Georgia should have shed blood, that young people should have been sent to the battlefield, and that the country should have been involved in the war.”

“This has not changed at all! We can talk about President Zelensky’s attitude toward the government. We do not see any change in that!

Some of our friends are asking why we are not apologizing. Let us see — before the meeting, we should do everything to ensure a friendly atmosphere. In this reality, we will see what the interest is in Ukraine normalizing relations with Georgia — what their personal interest and vision is.

We are also interested in the fact that the head of an office who yesterday was calling us to go to the battlefield and who had serious political influence in Ukraine is now arrested over massive corruption deals. How does all of this fit together? How does this relate to the issue? Maybe he was the one at fault and misled Zelensky?!

Although such discussions should remain behind closed doors, I confirm that we have a positive attitude. We have done everything we could for the Ukrainian people both politically and humanitarianly. Even today we are doing something unprecedented given our country’s resources — for example, thousands of children studying in schools and universities. There is unprecedented political support under our conditions. Imagine being under occupation, having a ‘Kalashnikov’ pointed at you, and still taking such a principled stance in the political field.

They did not appreciate it, but not because they are ungrateful — rather because it is not in their political interest to acknowledge it and give a positive assessment of your actions.

I hope that sooner or later it will become clear what this is all about — what happened,” said Gia Volski.