In an interview with FRANCE 24, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili reacted to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Georgian leader said she was “not too convinced” by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assurances that he is willing to stop attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Zourabichvili added that the only party that is escalating the war in Ukraine is Putin himself.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 a day after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, French-born Georgian President predicted that Moscow will fail in Ukraine just like it failed in Georgia in 2008, saying that “whatever happens, tomorrow’s Ukraine will be anti-Russian”.

She added that the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia “never changed the determination of the Georgian people to join Europe and NATO” and that she backed Ukraine’s bid to join the EU.

The Georgian leader rejected the argument that the West was in any way escalating the current conflict. “Nobody is adding to the escalation except Putin”, - she said.

“He just used the pretext of so-called danger to justify for himself and for the Russian population his acts of aggression”, - she told FRANCE 24.

However, Zurabishvili, who is also a former French diplomat, regretted the West’s “self-restriction” in the past “not do something that might provoke” Putin.