TBILISI, June 5. /TASS/. The coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014, known as the Maidan, had disastrous consequences for the country, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told reporters.

"They constantly remind us of the Maidan. Let me remind you all what the Maidan has brought to Ukraine. Then, the Ukrainian authorities were appointed from abroad. At that time, the responsibility for the country was also taken from abroad. However, we all know what has happened in Ukraine after that. Before, Ukraine was a country with territorial integrity, with an economy on the rise. Then, the Ukrainian economy was at almost 200 billion dollars. Now the country is destroyed, the economy is in shambles," Kobakhidze said. The politician pointed out that the Georgian authorities will do all they can to make sure there is no Maidan or Ukrainization in Georgia.

This is not the first time that the Georgian prime minister has spoken negatively about the Ukrainian Maidan. At the end of May, he said that the events in Ukraine had led to a declining economy and territorial issues for which no one was taking responsibility.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry took note of Kobakhidze's remarks, calling them "unfriendly." The ministry called on Georgian politicians to refrain from making such statements and "using Ukraine as a tool in Georgia's internal political struggle."

Tensions in relations between the two countries escalated on February 25, 2022, when then-Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that he did not intend to introduce sanctions against Russia, saying this was not in Georgia’s national interests. In early March 2022, Zelensky recalled Ukrainian ambassador to Tbilisi Igor Dolgov. Since then, the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly accused Georgia of helping Russia to circumvent sanctions.