President Volodymyr Zelensky Has Appointed a New Ambassador to Georgia for the First Time Since 2022.

In a decree dated Jan. 26, Zelensky named Mykhailo Brodovych as Ukraine’s ambassador to Georgia, The Caspian Post reports, citing Kyiv Post.

Brodovych, named to the post by Zelensky’s 26 January order, has worked in Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry since 1996. Prior to his assignment to Georgia, he served as an ambassador to Slovenia from 2015 to 2022.

Kyiv and Tbilisi’s relations deteriorated after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, with Ukraine criticizing the stance of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party. In March 2022, Zelensky recalled Ukraine’s ambassador to Georgia, Ihor Dolhov, and formally dismissed him three months later.

Ukraine also recalled its chargé d’affaires in Georgia, Mykhailo Kharyshyn, in September 2024, with the Foreign Ministry citing a “complex set of reasons.”

Diplomatic tensions were further heightened in 2023, when Georgia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Giorgi Zakharashvili, left Kyiv after Zelensky accused Georgian authorities of allowing Russia to “kill” former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a Ukrainian citizen, through his treatment in detention.

Saakashvili holds Ukrainian citizenship, which he acquired after 2013 following the end of his presidency in Georgia. He later relocated to Ukraine, where he occupied several senior government roles.

Until his departure from Ukraine in 2021 - and his subsequent imprisonment after returning to Georgia - he served as head of the Executive Reforms Committee, an appointment made by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Last November Mikheil Saakashvili made a public appeal to Zelensky, asking to be granted Ukrainian prisoner status.

Georgian authorities announced that Saakashvili had been returned to prison after more than two years in hospital.

The Georgian-Ukrainian politician, who has been convicted of a number of offenses related to his time in office, is expected to remain in prison until 2030.

Writing on Facebook, Saakashvili said that the ruling Georgian Dream party “directly declare Ukraine a foreign enemy state.” The latest of several criminal prosecutions started against him accuses him of sabotage on behalf of a foreign enemy state - referring, he believes, to his political activities in Ukraine.

“From the very beginning of this great war, the Russian oligarch [Georgian Dream founder Bidzina] Ivanishvili and his minions have openly sided with Russia. In this context, it is absolutely obvious that my persecution and my fate are connected with the war,” he said.

In the past, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Council of Europe have supported Saakashvili’s claim that his imprisonment is politically motivated - earlier that year, Council of Europe dubbed him a “political prisoner.”

In 2023 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has officially called on Georgian authorities to stop torturing and abusing Mikheil Saakashvili and hand him over to Kyiv.

“In the worst traditions of the NKVD of the USSR, the Georgian authorities are using psychological and physical violence against Mikheil Saakashvili, denying him urgently needed medical care, deliberately creating a direct threat to his life. The gross violation of human rights against a Ukrainian citizen does not coincide with the declared course of Tbilisi to join the EU, indicating the collapse of democracy in Georgia,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.