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Russian border guards shot and killed a Georgian national on Monday evening near the border with the Moscow-backed breakaway South Ossetia region, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced Monday evening.
“The incident once again confirms the difficult security environment on the ground and speaks of the severe consequences of the occupation,” Garibashvili said in a statement.
This is the first deadly incident in the vicinity of the South Ossetia border since a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008.
After the war, Russia unilaterally recognized South Ossetia — where Russian forces have been deployed since the 1990s — and another region, Abkhazia, and has since threatened to annex them.
The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell on Tuesday condemned the shooting.
“The EU strongly condemns the killing of a Georgian citizen and the detention of another one by the Russian border guards in Kirbali,” Borrell wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding: “We call for an immediate release.”
Georgia applied for EU membership in March 2022, together with Ukraine and Moldova — but, unlike the other two countries, it was not granted candidate status, and was asked to implement a series of reforms first.
The European Commission is set to give its decision on Georgia’s membership bid this week, and is expected to grant Georgia candidate status, despite concerns over the ruling government’s pro-Russian tendencies and the fate of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, now jailed and in declining health.
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