Kiev vows punishment over border breach

Kiev: Ukrainian authorities vowed to punish those responsible after ex-Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili forced his way back into the country in the latest twist in a feud with President Petro Poroshenko.

Saakashvili, a one-time regional governor in Ukraine, and hundreds of his supporters yesterday barged their way past border guards at a crossing with Poland to make a defiant return.

Saakashvili was stripped of Ukrainian citizenship in July by Poroshenko while he was out of the country after a major fallingout with Kiev’s leadership over criticisms of their flagging fight against corruption.

That move left the charismatic pro-Western politician stateless as he was also stripped of his citizenship in his homeland Georgia.

Saakashvili said he is determined to reclaim Ukrainian citizenship and get back into politics, but his re-entry drew a furious response from Kiev.

“A forceful breakthrough of the Ukranian border is a crime and those who were involved in the organisation of this breakthrough should be held responsible,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman wrote on Facebook yesterday.

The stand-off with Saakashvili is yet another headache for Poroshenko, who is battling a Russian-backed insurgency in the nation’s east and trying to revive a struggling economy.

Prime Minister Groysman urged against attempts to destabilise the country further.

“It’s time to fight for the state and not power,” he said. — AFP