Saakashvili Strains Georgia-Ukraine Relations

On March 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy removed the head of the Executive Committee on Reforms, Mikheil Saakashvili, from his position on the Coordination Council for Urban Planning. The Presidential Office provided no explanation for this sudden decision (Sova, March 5). Zelenskyy had appointed Saakashvili—the former president of Georgia and one-time governor of Ukraine’s Odessa Oblast—as head of the Ukrainian Executive Committee on Reforms back in May 2020 (RBC, May 7, 2020).