SHEHYNI, Ukraine – Ex-Georgian President-turned-Ukrainian politician Mikheil Saakashvili broke through the Polish-Ukrainian border on Sept. 10 with the help of hundreds of his backers, thus returning to Ukraine for the first time since President Petro Poroshenko stripped him of Ukrainian citizenship in July.
Saakashvili’s breakthrough into the country followed the authorities’ repeated attempts to deny him entry citing allegedly invalid documents and a bomb threat at a border checkpoint.
Saakashvili, who was stripped by President Petro Poroshenko of his Ukrainian citizenship in July and became stateless while being abroad, believes the cancellation of his citizenship to be illegal and unconstitutional. If Saakashvili is considered a stateless person, he is a permanent resident of Ukraine under the law, and has the right to enter the country without a visa, his lawyers argue.
Under international law and Ukraine’s Administrative Law Code, Saakashvili has a right to dispute his loss of citizenship in court and take part in court hearings over the issue in Ukraine, his lawyers say.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said it would open criminal cases into what it sees as the illegal crossing of the border by Saakashvili and his supporters.
This statement was questioned by some lawyers who said it was only an administrative offense. Saakashvili’s lawyer Markiyan Halabala said that the crossing of the border “in cases of extreme necessity” was not illegal under Ukrainian law.
Saakashvili announced that he was going to try to enter Ukraine from Poland through the checkpoint Krakowiec on the country’s western border, some 630 kilometers west of Kyiv. His supporters set up a camp near the checkpoint a day before, waiting for the arrival planned for Sept. 10. Hundreds of people, both supporters and protesters, as well as media, flocked to the border to await the entrance.
Earlier Ukrainian border service said that its guard would have to take away Saakashvili’s Ukrainian passport and make him return to Poland if he indeed tried to enter Ukraine.
Read more about it: Supporters, opponents of Saakashvili flock to Polish border before his arrival
Saakashvili changed plans several times. In the early afternoon it was announced that he will enter Ukraine by a train that runs from Przemysl to Kyiv.
Saakashvili boarded the train in Polish Przemysl with dozens of his supporters, including Ukrainian lawmakers. His son Nikoloz, 12, was travelling with him.
His other supporters and the media relocated from Krakowiec to Mostyska, a Ukrainian checkpoint where the train stops for the documents check.
While Polish border guards let him in at the Shehyni checkpoint, their Ukrainian counterparts blocked him on neutral territory, saying they were alerted that the checkpoint was under a bomb threat, according to Bloomberg news. After waiting for almost two hours, Saakashvili and his supporters left the bus, broke the cordon and the ex-president entered Ukraine on foot
The Financial Times provided this account: “As night began to fall on Ukraine’s Shehyni-Medyka border crossing with Poland, a crowd of some 100 supporters, based on the Ukrainian side, broke through guards. They charged hundreds of meters past border posts to neutral territory where the Georgian was being prevented from trying to enter Ukraine using his revoked domestic passport. The crowds then pushed him past Ukrainian border posts into the country, without going through formalities.”
From here, the story is told in live updates.
Ukrainian border guards stand on the platform at Mostyska, a Ukrainian checkpoint where the train from Poland’s Przemysl usually stops for a check-up, on Sept. 10. (Oleg Sukhov)
2:40 p.m. Saakashvili and his supporters boarded the train No. 705 in Przemysl that was supposed to depart to Kyiv at 2:07 p.m. However, the train hasn’t left the station yet. According to several lawmakers, who are in the train with Saakashvili, they were told that the train won’t depart while Saakashvili is in it.
This order came from Ukrzaliznytsya, Ukraine’s state-owned railway company that operates all the trains, including the one running from Przemysl.
3 p.m. Hromadske reports that the train administration announced that one of the passengers has no legal right to enter Ukraine, and that the train will not move until the passenger leaves it.
3:10 p.m. As the train’s departure is delayed by more than an hour, regular passengers begin to show their annoyance.
4 p.m. The train administration offered to provide the passengers of the delayed train with buses to enter Ukraine and refund their train tickets. Saakashvili remains in the train.
While the train administration said that the order to stop Saakashvili from entering Ukraine came from the National Police of Ukraine, the police made a statement saying they had nothing to do with it.
4:50 p.m. Saakashvili, his supporters, and Tymoshenko reportedly left the train and are looking to board a different one. There is a train to Kyiv that departs from Przemysl at 4:40 p.m.
Ex-Georgian President-turned-Ukrainian politician Mikheil Saakashvili and Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko talk to the press at the railway station in Przemysl, Poland, close to the Ukrainian-Polish border on Sept. 10. (AFP)
5:30 p.m. Saakashvili decided to try to enter Ukraine at Krakowiec checkpoint as initially planned.
5:50 p.m. Ukrainska Pravda reports that the bus carrying Saakashvili and his supporters is in fact driving not to Krakowiec, but to a different Ukrainian checkpoint, Shehyni, some 22 kilometers from Krakowiec.
7 p.m. Saakashvili and his supporters passed the Polish border checkpoint in Shehyni and waits to enter the Ukrainian checkpoint in a bus.
The border guards claim that there is a bomb threat at the checkpoint and halt its work – a move that is dismissed by Saakashvili’s supporters as a ploy to prevent Saakashvili from crossing the border.
The work of the Ukrainian checkpoint has stopped and a line of several kilometers of cars and trucks waiting to cross the border formed at the Ukrainian side of the border. The Kyiv Post reporter at the scene reports that camouflaged men that appear to be from the National Guard of Ukraine are waiting at the checkpoint.
7:55 p.m. Several hundred of Saakashvili supporters that were waiting for him on the Ukrainian side of the border broke through the police line and headed into the gray zone to lead Saakashvili in.
8 p.m. Saakashvili walks towards the Ukrainian border surrounded by his supporters.
8:05 p.m. Saakashvili is on the territory of Ukraine, sweeping past border guards with help of a cordon of supporters. He walks along a highway, surrounded by hundreds of his supporters.
This video shows the moment Mikheil Saakashvili’s supporters broke the corridor of the border guards.
This video shows the moment Mikheil Saakashvili enters Ukraine. Hundreds of his supporters accompany him, singing the Ukrainian national anthem.
9:03 p.m. While delivering his speech, Saakashvili was joined by Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko. Saakashvili announced he plans to arrange a meeting in Lviv to decide on his further movements.
9:20 p.m. Reportedly, Saakashvili took a car. He is heading to Lviv.
9:40 p.m. According to Interfax Ukraine, the meeting will take place right in the Lviv city center on the Market Square near the city council.on
9:53 p.m. Saakashvili’s ally and ex-Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze says he and Saakashvili will be in Lviv in an hour.
11 p.m. Saakashvili and his supporters arrived in Lviv and met with its mayor, Andriy Sadoviy, on the city’s main square.11:10 p.m.
The live video streamed on Mikheil Saakashvili’s Facebook page shows him surrounded by people in the center of Lviv where he arrived after breaking through the Ukrainian border by force. (Facebook)
11:10 p.m. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said that 12 police officers and five border guards suffered injuries during Saakashvili’s forceful breakthrough into Ukraine.
Mikheil Saakashvili enters the crowded city hall in Lviv after breaking into Ukraine by force. (Facebook)
When Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his citizenship in July, he argued that the former Georgian president had submitted incorrect information when applying for citizenship in 2015.
Saakashvili says that no proof of this has been provided and that the cancellation of his citizenship violates both Ukrainian and international law. Ukrainian authorities have so far refused to give Saakashvili documents on the loss of his citizenship, or specify the legal grounds for the cancellation.
Saakashvili’s lawyers argue that the cancellation of Saakashvili’s citizenship is illegal because it violates the Constitution and due process, and is politically motivated.
Members of the Citizenship Commission who voted for canceling Saakashvili’s citizenship are also controversial. One of them, the Interior Ministry’s State Secretary Oleksiy Takhtai, negotiated a corrupt deal in a video with a person who has already been convicted for the deal.
This story is being updated as more details become available. Update the page by clicking F5.
