Border Service Vows to Take Saakashvili's Passport Away if He Returns to Ukraine

First Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service Vasyl Servatiuk said on Tuesday that former Governor of Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili will be deprived of passport if he tries to enter Ukraine.

KIEV (Sputnik) — The Ukrainian Border Service will not allow Saakashvili to enter the country if he attempts to cross the Ukrainian border, Servatiuk said.

"The State Border Guard Service has a decree issued by the Ukrainian president and relevant instructions from the State Migration Service of Ukraine. In accordance with this, the Border Guard Service officers have to confiscate Saakashvili's passport or any other passport detected in the database during passport control and [listed as] invalid," Servatiuk told reporters.

According to Servatiuk, confiscation of a passport deprives an individual of the right to cross the national borders of Ukraine. The deputy head of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service added that there had been no information from the Ukrainian Security Forces about Saakashvili being prohibited from entering Ukraine.

On July 26, Ukraine's State Migration Service announced that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had issued a decree rescinding Saakashvili's citizenship when it was discovered that he had provided incorrect information while applying for Ukrainian citizenship.

Saakashvili left Georgia after incumbent president Giorgi Margvelashvili took the office in November 2013. The Georgian prosecutor's office repeatedly called for Kiev to extradite Saakashvili, but the Ukrainian side rejected the appeals at least twice. In 2015, Saakashvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship after receiving a Ukrainian passport.