Georgia says it foiled Ukrainian plot to deliver explosives to Russia

Europe 1 12:50 p.m., February 5, 2024

Georgian authorities said Monday they had foiled the plan of a Ukrainian who wanted to smuggle explosive devices from his country to Russia, via Georgian territory. The Georgian government is accused of moving closer to Russia, whose forces invaded this former Soviet republic in the Caucasus in 2008. As a result, ties between Tbilisi and kyiv are increasingly tense.

Six explosive devices were “introduced into Georgia on January 19” from Odessa, in southern Ukraine, and aboard a “mini van belonging to a Ukrainian,” Georgian security services said. These objects contained 14kg of C-4, an explosive substance. Three of the devices were confiscated at a border point between Georgia and Russia, and three others were found in Tbilisi, the capital, according to Georgian authorities.

Strained relations between Tbilisi and kyiv

Andrei Charashidze, a Ukrainian of Georgian origin, is accused of being the mastermind of the operation. Seven Georgians, three Ukrainians and two Armenians would have participated in the transport without knowing that they were explosives, added the security services. Relations between kyiv and Tbilisi further deteriorated when Georgian authorities detained Mikheil Saakashvili, the former pro-Western president of the Caucasian country who also holds Ukrainian nationality, in 2021.

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Georgian government of "slowly killing" Mikheil Saakashvili on the orders of Vladimir Putin and demanded his release, as did Poland and other European countries, as well as several NGOs. In September 2023, Georgia accused a senior Ukrainian official of preparing a coup to overthrow the government. In July, Ukraine ordered the Georgian ambassador to leave the country, a year after recalling its own representative to Georgia.