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Georgia refuses to transfer back Buk anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine. According to Ukrainian officials, Kiev cannot convince Tbilisi to give back the systems that were transferred to Georgia in 2008. In their turn, Georgian officials refuted Ukrainian claims.
Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Georgia, Andrei Kasyanov, wrote in his article that Kiev asked Tbilisi to give back Ukrainian Buk systems. Ukraine’s request also included Javelin anti-tank weapons provided to Georgia by the United States. According to the charge d’affaires, Washington agreed the transfer of Javelins to Ukraine, and offered to replace them with new complexes, but Tbilisi refused to provide military assistance to Kiev.
The diplomat said that from the very beginning of the Russian military operation, Ukraine has consistently sent requests, including to Georgia, asking for weapons, military equipment and ammunition.
According to Mr Kasyanov, Ukraine “will be consistent in its requests to all international partners,” including to Georgia.
Kasyanov also clarified that Ukraine has already openly claimed its vital need for weapons.
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Tbilisi promptly commented on the issue, clarifying that the claims from Kiev do not correspond to reality.
Georgia will not give Buk anti-aircraft missile systems back to Ukraine, because they were not provided for free but Georgia bought them in 2008, the Georgian Defense Ministry claimed on January 10th.
“The fact that Ukraine donated Buk air defense systems to Georgia is not true. The Defense Department received the Buk systems in 2007 through a multimillion-dollar purchase. This was carried out by a secret agreement, which is why we do not have more specific details,” the Georgian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The Georgian Ministry noted that Georgia also “paid tens of millions of dollars to purchase Javelin anti-tank systems from the United States in 2017,” which means Tbilisi will not sen them to Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense emphasizes that Georgia continues to provide humanitarian and political support to Ukraine, but “the Georgian government has repeatedly expressed a firm position” on this matter of transfer of dual-use weapons and equipment to Kiev. In early December, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili once again claimed that his country would not supply Ukraine with weapons, since it was not going to become a party to the conflict.
