Russian war against Georgia in 2008 has not completely receded into the past. Such a statement made the President of Ukraine.

“These days, people remember the Russian war against Georgia in 2008. There are many talks about the prerequisites of that war, about its consequences. About how that year’s refusal to provide Ukraine and Georgia with a NATO Membership Action Plan increased the audacity of the Russian leadership. But still, the war of that time has not yet become history, has not completely receded into the past. Therefore, it is necessary to talk more about what can be done than about what happened.

The challenges of that time are still very relevant today. And not only because the threat of further Russian aggression in this part of the Caucasus still exists, even though it is frozen. Only now has the world begun to realize the need for real, effective tools to prevent such aggressions and to bring any aggressors to justice.

2008, 2014, 2022 - the wars that started in these years have a different scale and nature, but there is one meaning of what happened: regional and global security mechanisms did not work.

That is why the principle of prevention, which we have been insisting on for a very long time even before February 24, is so necessary in international relations. If it is already clear that a state is preparing aggression – unjust, unprovoked, illegal, then the world’s reaction to its preparation should be the same as to the aggression that happened. It is necessary to act to prevent war, not to wait for strikes and victims.

After this Russian war against Ukraine, neither smoldering nor frozen conflict should remain. This is an important conclusion. Ukraine must return everything that Russia temporarily seized, and the aggressor state must be punished for the crime of aggression. And this is important not only for justice”, - said Volodymyr Zelensky.