On July 5, Irakli Kobakhidze, the chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said that the Ukrainian authorities, together with the Georgian opposition, seek to prevent Tbilisi from getting EU candidate status.

"The radical opposition has hope that one of those who will negatively influence the granting of us candidate status will be the Ukrainian authorities," Irakli Kobakhidze added. According to him, the opposition may try to use for its own purposes the head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada David Arakhamia, Secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov, adviser to the head of the office of the Ukrainian President Mikhail Podolyak - these are Ukrainian politicians who demanded that Tbilisi open a second front against Russia.

He expressed confidence that the European Union would not be able to refuse Georgia the status of an EU candidate if the situation in the country was stable and the Ukrainian authorities could not influence the process. "The position of the Ukrainian authorities will not be decisive. The position of the global war party will be decisive. If they desire to block the assignment of the status of Georgia's candidate once again, they will be able to do it. Any one of the 27 countries they can move aside, in which case we will not be given the status of a candidate," Kobakhidze said.

He also noted that Arakhamia does not act in the interests of Georgia or Ukraine. "As for Arakhamia personally, he has no homeland. Neither Ukraine is his homeland, nor Georgia nor Russia. Based on this, if he acts guided by unpatriotic interests about Ukraine or Georgia, he will do it under the dictation of other interests," the chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party said.

Notably, Arakhamia said that the presence of the Georgian Dream in power would create problems for Georgia on the way to the European Union.

Moreover, Irakli Kobakhidze ruled out holding consultations on transferring imprisoned ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili to Kyiv. "Consultations regarding the issue of Saakashvili are absolutely out of the question – we are ready to remain in the regime of one-sided friendship with Ukraine," Kobakhidze said.

"The Georgian authorities are not going to respond to Kyiv's demands and are going to remain in the mode of unilateral friendship with Ukraine," he said. "As far as how our relationship can continue, we are ready to remain in one-sided friendship mode in any case. There are simple reasons - we must respect the centuries-old friendship between Georgia and Ukraine, between countries and peoples, and Ukraine is at war today; this is the only reason why we must remain in a one-sided friendship mode, even with the Ukrainian authorities, despite these insulting Steps. Against the background of the step that has already been taken, the next steps are no longer interesting. Of course, no consultations on the issue of Saakashvili can begin," Kobakhidze said.

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