Saakashvili told how, thanks to Ukrainian air defense, Putin was unable to capture Georgia in 2008
Thanks to the help of Ukraine, Georgian air defenses were able to inflict great damage on Russian aviation and now Russia does not bomb Ukraine because it knows that Ukraine has powerful air defense systems.
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The governor of the Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, announced this at a press conference dedicated to the eighth anniversary of the war in South Ossetia.
“Back in 2006, Putin threatened me with war, and in 2006 he gave orders to prepare for war. Naturally, when they were preparing, we were also preparing. And if there was no help from Ukraine, Georgian statehood would not have survived,” Saakashvili said.
According to Saakashvili, Putin did not intend to seize only South Ossetia. He allegedly wanted to overthrow the government in Tbilisi and take over all of Georgia.
“Just as in Ukraine he was unable to solve his strategic tasks and create a corridor to Crimea, did not capture the entire Donbass and does not control Kyiv, in Georgia in 2008 he was unable to solve his main strategic tasks. Why? Firstly, because of the heroic resistance of not just the Georgian army, but the entire Georgian people. The war was clearly not five days, many weeks, more than half of Georgian territory was occupied by Russian troops. In such a situation, we were able to ensure that the government apparatus and financial system were fully functioning,” the ex-president of Georgia confesses.
In addition, Saakashvili claims that the American ambassador told him about the terrible plans of Russian Minister Sergei Lavrov to destroy “all of Georgia.”
“When Russia entered Georgia, the American ambassador came to me on the second day and said that they asked Lavrov what their goal was and he said - the complete destruction of Georgia. They wanted to destroy Georgian statehood and did not hide it,” he noted.
Among the reasons why the Russians were never able to carry out their insidious plans, Saakashvili named “help from Ukraine,” which lent its air defense to the Georgians.
“The second reason we were saved was the help of Ukraine. And I want to thank Ukraine. In Ukraine we trained our military specialists, Ukraine gave us air defense, which was absolutely critical in the first days of the invasion, because they were unable to gain a critical advantage in the first days. Ukraine gave us the Buk and Osa systems and several ammunition kits for each system. Thanks to these systems, we shot down 12 Russian bombers, including the Tu-22 M-3, which we had never shot down before. I say this so that you understand what role Ukraine played. And one of the reasons why Russian aircraft are not bombing Ukraine now is the lessons of Georgia. They know that Ukrainian air defenses are capable of shooting them down and Ukraine has enough ammunition,” he said.
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