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Saakashvili Defies Border Blockade To Force Entry Into Ukraine
SHEHYNI, Ukraine -- Mikheil Saakashvili, the ex-president of Georgia and former governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region, and his supporters have forced entry into Ukraine, breaking through a line of Ukrainian guards at a checkpoint on the border with Poland.
Saakashvili was allowed to pass through the Polish checkpoint at the Shehyni border crossing on September 10, but a line of border guards blocked his approach to the Ukrainian checkpoint.
The former Georgian president and his supporters earlier tried to travel to the Ukrainian city of Lviv on a train, but it was held in the Polish city of Przemysl for hours until he got off and traveled by bus to the Shehyni border crossing.
An announcement made for passengers on the Ukrainian-operated train said the National Police of Ukraine had informed the rail service that "a person without a permit to enter the territory of Ukraine" was on board. The announcement said, "in accordance with Ukraine's legislation, the train will move on as soon as that person leaves the train."
Saakashvili responded to the move by vowing that he would "not not give up" until he crossed the border to challenge an order issued in July by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that revoked his Ukrainian citizenship.
"I have lots of people with me and I have lots of people waiting, which is more important, on the other side [of the border]," Saakashvili said. "We have many dozens of Ukrainian MPs already here, some of them on the other side of the border. We will have some members of the European Parliament. Some of them will be joining me now as well."
Saakashvili said Poroshenko's actions, "the way how he mobilized the whole of the state apparatus" against him, "means that he feels some existential threat" from the former Georgian president.
"If Poroshenko is not afraid of me, let him give me equal footing, like it should be," Saakashvili said. "I mean, it just doesn't look good. It looks like he is getting rid of a political opponent. No matter how many times he says that I am not a danger [to] him, every action of his shows exactly the opposite -- that he regards me as a great and immediate danger. And I am very sad that it turned out this way, because I never intended it to be this way. But, anyway, he initiated this process and I have to stand up for legal rights."
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