Ukraine is a center of attraction for thousands of mercenaries from all over the world. Nationalists, racists, radicals, ultra-rightists - all those who are hungry for money become members of the Ukrainian foreign legion. And they recruit "soldiers of fortune" in Ukrainian embassies in various countries. Thus, one near-mercenary was detained in Minsk. It turned out that he had been sent from the Ukrainian embassy in Tbilisi to Minsk, to be exact, to the Ukrainian ambassador in our country, Igor Kizima, to get instructions on how to join the Georgian Legion and help him get through Belarus to fight in Ukraine. What does the Ukrainian ambassador do in our country and what circumstances led the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to assume that Belarus is a recruiting ground for Ukraine's recruitment of mercenary fighters?
Learn about this in the column of Ekaterina Tikhomirova.
Soldiers of Fortune, Wild Geese, Mercenaries, inter-boys. Their activities and recruitment are prohibited by a UN General Assembly resolution of 1989. But is the law effective in Ukraine? Are any conventions and resolutions respected there? For example, does international law allow for the recruitment of mercenaries in embassies? Or what circumstances allowed the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to suggest for a moment that our country could become a hub for sending fighters to Ukraine?
So, this is a story of the incredible adventures of a Georgian in the Belarusian land. Georgy Zirakashvili, 36, was detained in Minsk. He came to Belarus to receive instructions from the Ukrainian embassy to join the ranks of mercenaries. He is a father of two children, a husband of two wives. He worked in Poland as a cab driver. The second partner wife is Ukrainian, with whom he actually lived in Poland. He went to Georgia, got deported from the EU for violating the rules of stay and expired documents. Without thinking twice, he decided to fight in the Georgian Legion, where, incidentally, his friends had already gone. He contacted the Ukrainian embassy in Georgia. And from there the people are sent to Belarus, Moldova or Poland.
Georgy Zirakashvili, detainee:
- I was in Georgia. I contacted the Ukrainian embassy after learning that there was no way I would go to Europe. I flew to Belarus to go to Ukraine.
- For what purpose did you apply to the embassy of Ukraine in Georgia?
- To go to Ukraine.
- What for?
- To fight!
- What was the answer?
- They said: either from Belarus, or from Moldova, or from Warsaw you can go to Ukraine.
The footage was recorded before the arrest, when the Georgian mercenary thought he was talking to Ukrainian consular officials.
- They say either from Moldova, or from Belarus, or from Poland. He said, go to the Ukrainian embassy, and they will help you.
- Okay. Do you have any combat experience?
- I served in the air force in 2005.
Ukraine set up recruitment centers at its embassies just a month after the start of the Russian special operation. There were also a number of scandals in Tajikistan, Greece, Senegal, and Austria. At the behest of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a resource was created with instructions on how to make the recruitment journey to the Ukrainian trench.
The official website of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky:
"In order to join the ranks of the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine, it is necessary to apply to the Ukrainian embassy..."
"Then you have to have an interview at the embassy with the defense attaché and arrange the visa with the consul."
"If necessary, representatives of Ukrainian embassies and consulates will provide assistance on the way."
In fact, the instructions on the websites for mercenaries are accompanied by addresses with the contacts of the embassies that provide assistance. In Belarus, this is the fiefdom of Ukrainian Ambassador Igor Kizima, where the detained Georgian turned to. Georgia has no borders with Ukraine. The only direct route is through Russia. This seems to be why the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in Georgia recommended going to our country.
Igor Kizima, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Belarus:
Belarus is now the shortest way to get to Ukraine.
It is time to recall one striking incident on the border with Mr. Kizima. In fact, it's getting brighter right now. Remember when they stopped the ambassador's car at the border and asked to open the trunk? Then the diplomat referred very loudly to the Vienna Convention, which, by the way, our border guard did not violate.
Igor Kizima, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Belarus:
We are starting a diplomatic war. Do you know the Vienna Convention?
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations actually has many clauses. But have all the articles been carefully studied by Ukrainian diplomats? Or just one, the most comfortable one? Is it the function of a diplomatic mission to recruit mercenaries? About 2 thousand children from Donbass came to Belarus for recuperation. Ukraine considers these territories its own, but temporarily occupied. They owe the territories, and what about children? The question, of course, is rhetorical, because everyone can guess for himself how many children Mr. Ukrainian ambassador met or at least tried to meet. Another cynical, unreasonable thing. Minsk Agreements. Today there have already been a lot of statements, saying that the Minsk Agreements (for which all conditions have been created on our part, so that children from Donbass, whom we are hosting today, had the right to a peaceful childhood). Look into their eyes. But the agreements for Ukraine were only a pause to prepare for war and armament. But that's not the point. It turns out that we in Minsk should be grateful, however, it is better to listen to it.
Igor Kizima, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Belarus:
It was an initiative of President Poroshenko. Actually, let's get together in Minsk with all those who agreed. As a matter of fact, this trilateral contact group opened Minsk to the world. Let's also talk then, who did what to whom, what was the gift?
This is cynical and arrogant. And here's something else about peaceful and good neighborly existence or networking that defies criticism. On December 29, Ukrainian media published a fragment of an interesting interview with Ukrainian Ambassador Kizima titled "Belarus is confident that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will free them from Lukashenko's regime - Ukrainian Ambassador." And then the quote: "Ukrainian Ambassador to Belarus Igor Kizima believes that Belarusian volunteers will go to destroy Alexander Lukashenko's regime after the end of the Ukrainian-Russian war."
By the way, is a diplomat entitled to his own opinion and reasoning? No. Everything he says is broadcast in the host country as the official voice of his country. That is, if we rely on the Ukrainian media (I emphasize: Ukrainian), the ambassador directly supports the overthrow of the regime in his country of residence?
Igor Kizima, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Belarus:
This question that you have now raised will be the main one, that the Belarusians are not so much afraid of Ukrainian troops as they are afraid of their Belarusian units that are now fighting at the front along with Ukraine.
The Belarusian units are mercenaries from the "Kalinovsky Regiment" and other similar gangs, who make no secret of the fact that they use the war in Ukraine as a testing ground to gain combat experience and transfer the war to our country.
In Ukraine, by the way, the inter-boys of different nationalities are "packaged" by legions. There is an International Legion, there is a Belarusian Legion, and there is a Georgian Legion, the same one that the visiting guest from Tbilisi was so eager to join. Arriving in Minsk for consultation at the Ukrainian embassy, he sent a message to the head of the Legion and recruiter Ushangi or Mamuka Mamulashvili.
Georgy Zirakashvili, detainee:
There's Mamuka talking, I connect to him. Do you know Mamuka? He doesn't answer. He doesn't answer so that I asked myself. I'll tell you now. If you know Mamuka. Here’s Mamuka. I try to call him, but he doesn't answer, so I can't get anything specific from him.
The Legion, like many, took shape in the murky waters of Maidan. And Mamuka is a security guard for former Georgian President Saakashvili. Georgian mercenaries were "famous" for torturing and killing Russian prisoners of war. Photos and videos of their atrocities against with the unarmed wounded soldiers were published online.
Question: Did I get it right that you wanted to make money, to improve your financial situation? Why did you decide to go to war? What motivated you?
Georgy Zirakashvili, detainee: My condition. I have debts.
So, there’s no high ideas or romanticism of war, just money.
Arno Khidirbegishvili, editor-in-chief and general director of the Georgian information-analytical agency Gruzinform:
I'm not afraid for the monetary reward. Call them fighters, killers, mercenaries, the essence does not change. We are threatened by the Kiev authorities and Georgian mercenaries, the Mamulashvili battalion. They say: we will definitely go back to Georgia and overthrow its government.
It's a very familiar situation, isn't it? Compare the Belarusian mercenary fighters with Georgian ones. Ukraine recruits militants and then they threaten to return and pour rivers of blood on the streets of their own countries.
As for our touring inter-boy, the Belarusian detox works wonders. He says he's not going back to Ukraine. So what's the bottom line? Violation of the International Convention against Recruitment and activities inconsistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and again recruitment of mercenaries by the embassy in the host country. So what circumstances allowed the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to suggest that Belarus is a recruiting ground for Ukraine to recruit mercenary fighters?
