The Prime Minister of Georgia named Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO as one of the reasons for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Irakli Garibashvili stated this at the GLOBSEC forum – a global security think tank based in Bratislava.
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When asked why Russia invaded Ukraine, the head of government responded: “I think everyone knows the reason”.
- “I don’t think I do. Please go ahead,” pressed the interviewer.
- “I think you know very well, as do the attendees. One of the reasons was NATO expansion, isn’t that right? And many more reasons.
- “So, you think NATO expansion was the trigger?”
- “I don’t want to speculate on that, or to quote the Russian government, but one reason was Ukraine’s will and intention to become a NATO member, and we are seeing the results.”
Before this, Garibashvili spoke about the Russo-Georgian War of 2008, and on the question of whether it was an unprovoked act of aggression, responded:
“I don’t want to go into the specifics of this topic, we have our opinions. If our government was in power back then, we would do everything to prevent that war.
Georgia is a small country of just 4 million. It is well-equipped, and has a decent army, but is still a small country. So, I think it [to avoid war] should be on the top of the mind of any government, especially considering that this small country is not a member of the EU or NATO, and is not covered by the international security umbrella. But that war, I don’t want to go into detail, was devastating for us. The end result is that 20 percent of our territory is now occupied by Russia.”
Naming NATO’s eastern expansion as the cause of war is Kremlin’s narrative. The West holds that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was not provoked by Ukraine, and was caused by Ukraine’s increasing desire to pave its own future independent from Russia.
The result of President Vladimir Putin’s so-called special military operation, which was supposedly meant to stall NATO encroachment to its borders, was that Finland and Sweden, two other neighbors, decided to join the military alliance. Finland was admitted to NATO in April 2023.
