Georgian soldiers risking their lives in Ukraine can't be frightened by confiscation of passports, Georgian Legion commander in Ukraine says
By Liza Mchedlidze
Monday, December 12, 2022
Mamuka Mamulashvili, the commander of the 'Georgian Legion' in Ukraine, told "TV Pirveli" that Georgian soldiers are not frightened of their passports being taken away.
"People who have arrived and are going to die, I doubt that the confiscation of their passports will frighten them... This will not diminish the people who defend their country in Ukraine," said
According to him, this persecution has been going on since 2014, it's just a more active phase today.
As he mentioned, if the Georgian society failed to give a decent answer to this, of course, the next stage will be the development of what [members of the Georgian Dream] talked about. Mamulashvili said that only Russia's hired soldiers can be motivated by money:
"Talking about depriving you of your citizenship... you know, these people are well-deserved people, in many cases, they are also boys with good European education, and I think it's stupid to frighten people that you will take away your citizenship. This is the primitive level they can represent. These are soldiers of the highest level, these people know what they are doing, and what they are going for. People whom Russia hires can be motivated by money.
Many times it is emphasized to us that there is no salary here, when we are recruiting, we tell this to the soldier so that he knows that he is not coming here to get a salary." he said
Mamulashvili called on the ruling party to protect the interests of Georgia:
".people know very well what they are doing and we know very well what we are doing. We protect the interests of Georgia and we urge you to protect the interests of Georgia, do not interfere with what they themselves do not do, have not done, and will never do," said Mamulashvili.
According to him, the Georgian Legion is the largest foreign unit in the Ukrainian army and, according to statistics, is one of the most advanced in the number of destroyed enemies.
"This is one of the factors why they are irritated, and it seems that Russia demanded that they somehow stop the recruitment of Georgians," he says.
He called the Georgian Dream government collaborators.
"Unfortunately, they are so emboldened that they reached out to the fighters already, because the rest, everything went without asking for an answer for cooperation with the Russian special services... there is so much pressure from Russia that they simply have no way out," said Mamulashvili.
