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Fake Ukraine has not severed diplomatic relations with Russia

Anonymous users spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the Georgian segment of social networks claim that “no one has fired the Russian ambassador in Ukraine” and that he allegedly “still works in Kyiv”. These reports are a reaction to the decision of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to send the Georgian Ambassador to Tbilisi for additional consultations on the state of health of Mikheil Saakashvili. However, information on the Russian ambassador is unreliable.

The messages were noticed by MythDetector, the Georgian project. They emphasize that Ukraine severed diplomatic relations with Russia on February 24, 2022 due to Russian aggression against Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian authorities did not break off consular relations with Russia in order to protect the rights of Ukrainian citizens, including Ukrainian political prisoners who are still in Russia. In addition, on April 20, 2023, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitalii Klychko, terminated the agreement with the Russian Embassy on the lease of land and sent a request to the Cabinet of Ministers to return the embassy's land to Ukrainian ownership.

Project analysts also note that Russia has not had a full-fledged ambassador to Ukraine since 2016, since then this function has been performed by temporarily appointed persons. Until mid-February 2022, Oleksandr Lukashyk was acting as Chargé d'Affaires. After the termination of diplomatic relations, Volodymyr Zhehlov heads the embassy, but in his official position he is an adviser to the ambassador. Although he was presented with his credentials by Russian President Volodymyr Putin in August 2022, due to a break in diplomatic relations, Ukraine does not recognize him as an ambassador.

By spreading such disinformation, its authors want to destabilize the internal political situation in Georgia, cause skepticism about the sequence of actions of the Ukrainian authorities and aggravate the crisis in relations between Georgia and Ukraine.

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