Ukraine on Tuesday criticized the resumption of air traffic between Russia and Georgia, approved by Moscow last week after a four-year ban at the height of the war with Kiev.

“The world is going to isolate Russia in order to force it to end the war, but Georgia accepts Russian Aryan companies and sends its own to Moscow,” Ukrainian diplomacy spokesman Oleg Nikolenko condemned on Twitter, Ukrinform reports. AFP and Agerpres. “The Kremlin can only be happy with such a result,” he added.

Flights from Russia to Georgia, a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus, have been banned since 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the blockade last Wednesday and also granted a visa-free regime for Georgian citizens wishing to travel to Russia.

However, diplomatic relations between Russia and Georgia remain severed after the 2008 war, when Moscow deployed troops to two pro-Russian separatist territories in Georgia.

President of Georgia: “Challenge”

For months, the Georgian opposition has denounced what it sees as a pro-Russian turn by the government, which has also worried the European Union, which Tbilisi is seeking to join.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, a staunch supporter of the West with limited powers, condemned the resumption of flights with Russia as a “provocation” by Moscow.

For its part, Moscow advocated these measures aimed at “gradual promotion of exchanges and contacts” between citizens of Russia and Georgia.

The first Russian flight is currently scheduled for Friday to Georgia, a country that hosts large numbers of Russian émigrés fleeing the military mobilization that Vladimir Putin ordered in September 2022.

Read also: Putin’s unexpected move regarding Georgia / Sudden warming of relations

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