Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Announces Recall of Its Chargé D’Affaires in Tbilisi
On September 8, the newly appointed Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrij Sybiha announced the recall of Ukraine’s temporary Chargé d’Affaires in Georgia, Mykhailo Kharyshyn, citing “his complete lack of understanding of the realities of diplomacy in a wartime state.” [This is the unofficial translation of the quote from the Ukrainian’s FM’s statement]
“I articulated very clear criteria for the effectiveness of Ukrainian ambassadors. These include concrete results, courage, and proactivity. Ambassadors in a wartime country cannot be detached from the realities of war,” the Foreign Minister wrote.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister stressed that he “is well aware of what it means to work as an Ambassador and how to make this work more effective. Today, every Ambassador must be a player-coach who does not wait for instructions from the center but acts proactively, takes responsibility, and demonstrates the strength of Ukrainian diplomacy by personal example. I will support every head of a foreign diplomatic mission who demonstrates such energy and effectiveness.”
Answering a media question, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze reacted to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister’s decision, saying that “in fact, according to my information, this is not a kind of a decision that was made back in 2022 regarding the recall of the Ambassador. Then, as you remember, it was a purely political decision.”
“In this case, according to our information, this is not a political act. A certain representative, who, if I am not mistaken, also has diplomatic status, bought household items and this was considered inappropriate in light of the ongoing war, becoming the reason for his recall, this is the information we have,” Prime Minister Kobakhidze said, specifying that the household items he was referring to were the washing machines.
The two countries are not represented by ambassadors in each other’s capitals, after bilateral relations deteriorated significantly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
A few days after the outbreak of the war, Ukraine recalled its Ambassador to Georgia over the “immoral position” of the then Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili’s cabinet on Russian sanctions and for barring Georgian volunteers from flying to Ukraine. A year later, Ukrainian MFA summoned the Georgian Ambassador to express a protest and Kyiv requested the Georgian Ambassador’s departure within 48 hours to Tbilisi for consultations with his capital, amid Ukraine’s concerns over the health of its citizen, imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
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