‘We did not Prepare for this Kind of Eventuality’ – Deputy Defense Minister

Georgia felt there was only a low probability of a massive Russian invasion, Batu Kutelia, the Georgian deputy defense minister, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“We did not prepare for this kind of eventuality,” he was quoted by the Financial Times. “I didn’t think it likely that a member of the UN Security Council and the OSCE would react like this.”

He said, according to the Financial Times, that Georgia had made the decision to seize the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali despite the fact that its forces did not have enough anti-tank and air defenses to protect themselves against the possibility of serious resistance.

Kutelia, however, also claimed that the Georgian troops moved into the South Ossetia only after the Russian military hardware crossed into the region from the Russia’s North Ossetian Republic.

“At some point there was no choice,” he said.

He also said that the damage to the Georgian military infrastructure was “significant” and that it would take an enormous amount of foreign help to rebuild Georgia’s defensive capabilities.

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