On September 26, a statement by political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze started circulating on Facebook, claiming that Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that if the “United National Movement” (UNM) were in power, Georgia would have started a war. Sakvarelidze made this statement in an interview with the publication “Resonance,” which was published online on September 25.
The claim that Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Georgia would have started a war if the “United National Movement” were in power is false. There is no evidence in the media or official sources to support this statement.
“Myth Detector” searched in Georgian, English, Ukrainian, and Russian for sources that would confirm whether Ukraine’s current president made such a statement, but no such claim could be found in the media, official websites, or social media accounts of government agencies.
In 2023, “Myth Detector” debunked similar disinformation, claiming that Zelenskyy was calling for Georgia to join the war. In reality, the president stated that if Ukraine defeats Russia, Georgia would have new prospects for reclaiming its territorial integrity. However, he never said that the country should start a war, nor that war would begin if the “United National Movement” were in power.
It is worth noting that a statement similar to Sakvarelidze’s claim was made by Oleksiy Arestovych, former advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. In April 2022, he said that Georgia had a historic opportunity to reclaim Abkhazia and the South Ossetia region, but in his view, at that moment, neither Georgia nor Moldova had governments willing to engage in war. However, he also expressed the belief that Mikheil Saakashvili was a person who might take such risks and get involved in a military operation.
It should be noted that Arestovych resigned from his position on January 17, 2023, after spreading information suggesting that a residential complex in Dnipro was hit not by a Russian missile, but by its fragments after being intercepted by Ukrainian air defense. After his resignation, a criminal investigation was launched against him, prompting Arestovych to flee the country. He currently lives in the United States, where he regularly releases video messages criticizing the Ukrainian government.
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