Georgia Explains Its Refusal To Provide Ukraine With Buk Anti-Aircraft Missile System And Javelin

Georgia has repeatedly clearly voiced its position on the transfer of weapons to Ukraine, and the Buk complexes and Javelin anti-tank systems, which Ukraine requested, were purchased by Tbilisi at state expense, and not received free of charge.

This is stated in the statement of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia in response to the notification of the temporary charge d'affaires of Ukraine Andrii Kasyanov, European Pravda writes.

The Georgian ministry called false information "spread by experts or individual media", saying that Ukraine handed over the Buk anti-aircraft missile system to Georgia free of charge.

"The Ministry of Defense received the mentioned Buk system in 2007 under a multimillion purchase. This was done under a secret agreement, so we are deprived of the opportunity to clarify the details," the ministry said in a statement.

"We clarify to the public that tens of millions of dollars were also paid by the Ministry of Defense in 2017 for the purchase of Javelin anti-tank systems in the United States," the statement added.

The authority noted that Georgia "resolutely continues to provide humanitarian and political support to Ukraine, based on its available capabilities", and the tons of humanitarian goods sent, including generators, purchased and transferred to Ukraine at the initiative of the prime minister, are a clear confirmation of this.

"Regarding the transfer of weapons or dual purpose equipment to Ukraine, the Georgian government has repeatedly voiced a clear position on this issue," the Georgian ministry added.

The government of Georgia does not transfer weapons to Ukraine, as it claims that it does not want to be a participant in the war.

We will remind you that the prime minister of Georgia considers what the government is doing to support Ukraine to be sufficient.