Koba Liklikadze is a journalist with RFE/RL's Georgian Service.
Vadim Chkhetiani is recovering from a wound suffered on the battlefield in Ukraine fighting against invading Russian forces as a member of the Ukrainian armed forces. He's one of the lucky ones. Many Georgians have suffered losses recently around Bakhmut, which has been pummeled by Russian fire.
Turkey condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tempered its reaction, including refusing to join sanctions against Moscow while providing Kyiv with key military drones. What are the geopolitical calculations behind Ankara's response?
Controversial former Penitentiary Department head Bacho Akhalya, whose appointment last week as Georgian defense minister elicited a wide range of reactions, has embarked upon his new duties and made public the broad outlines of his agenda. The ministry's "unchanged and clear objective," in Akhalaya's words, encompasses three basic priorities: modernization, peace, and integration with NATO.
Georgia's contribution of troops to the coalition in Iraq has split opinion in Tbilisi, but for the soldiers on the ground, the only concern is getting through their mission in one piece. As RFE/RL's Georgian Service reports from Iraq, the peacekeepers are highly motivated but feel the strain of long deployments and rising casualties.
