“quicker than many think. Georgia will be free. And we will meet on Rustaveli with Nana, with Eka, with Givi, and Giorgi, with Ia. We will eat Khevsuretian Khinkali, we will eat Adjarian khachapuri. We will eat mchadi. We will drink Saperavi from Kakheti,” said Oleksiy Goncharenko, Ukrainian MP, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, at a session of PACE.

“April 1989, spring, trees are blossoming, beautiful Tbilisi, Shota Rustaveli and Georgians are standing near the Parliament with Georgian flags, fighting for freedom, for democracy for Georgia, singing songs. At 4:00 AM in the night of April 9, Moscow gave the order to attack these people. And Russian soldiers with military shovels attacked these civilians.

They killed 20 people, mostly women, with military shovels on Rustaveli Avenue near the Parliament. That’s what happened.

Now again it is April 2025. Georgians are on the streets, they’re on Rustaveli Avenue. They’re standing near their parliament. They want democracy. They want free Georgia, and again, Moscow is attacking them—this time, not by the hands of Russian soldiers, but by the hands of Moscow puppets, Ivanishvili, Kobakhidze and others.

That’s what’s happening right now, and we are here to support Georgian people, to support democracy in Georgia. They have a right to be free. They have a right to be a democratic, European state.

But I want to say to Georgian people, it is the darkest moment just before sunrise. And I know for sure that the day will come, and quicker than many think. You know, my mother told me one day that she knew always that the Soviet Union would collapse, but she never thought that she would see it with her own eyes. Like these Georgians in 1989, they would not believe that in two years and a half, the Soviet Union would disappear. The same will be now—quicker than many think. Georgia will be free. And we will meet on Rustaveli with Nana, with Eka, with Givi, and Giorgi, with Ia. We will eat Khevsuretian Khinkali, we will eat Adjarian khachapuri. We will eat mchadi. We will drink Saperavi from Kakheti. We will drink qvevri wine from Racha. We will celebrate that Tbilisi is one of the capitals of the European Union. This day will come. I know this for sure, and this day we’ll remember all the fighters and we’ll be singing “Suliko” together.

I know this for sure. The day will come. Glory to Georgia!” he stated.