Due to the prosecution in Georgia of Georgian/Ukrainian politician Mikheil Saakashvili and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations between the two countries have soured significantly.

Although Georgian by origin and Russian by education, he grew up in Ukraine and developed a deep attachments to its people, being one of the earliest enthusiasts of Ukrainian folklore and a staunch local patriot.

Many of them who had military education crossed into Ukraine and joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Українська Повстанська Армія) against the Soviet regime.

The next month, on April 9, Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union while Ukraine, the second largest republic behind the Russian SFSR, did so on August 24 after the failed coup in Moscow two days earlier.

In 1992, during the War in Abkhazia, the Ukrainian National Assembly called for volunteers to join their newly created military formation UNSO-Argo with intent to aid Georgian side against the Russian-backed Abkhaz separatists during the conflict.

During the full-scale offensive by the Russian and Abkhaz sides in August 1993 on Shroma, Ukrainians managed to repel the attack but lost seven members of their battalion.

The close friendship between Presidents Mikheil Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko has also played an important role in recent political unity of the two countries.

The new Georgian government brought criminal charges against him, and he was sentenced in absentia to 6 years in prison by the Tbilisi City Court.

[11] In 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed Saakashvili as governor of Odesa Oblast, Ukraine's largest province.

Following Saakashvili's resignation from the post of Odesa governor in November 2016, bilateral relations between the two countries began improving.

[13] In March 2017, Ukraine, which was at the time a temporary member of the United Nations Security Council, proposed a resolution supporting the territorial integrity of Georgia.

[17] The relations further deteriorated in October 2021, after Mikheil Saakashvili secretly returned to Georgia via a semi-trailer truck loaded with milk products, bypassing the customs control.

[18] By this time Saakashvili had already been condemned by the Tbilisi City Court to six years in prison in absentia for abuse of power, embezzlement, and his implication in the attempted murder of an opposition lawmaker.

Mamuka Mdinaradze, a leader of the ruling party of Georgia, said that the Georgian government had "specific information" that Saakashvili did not leave the territory of Ukraine at all.

The investigation found out that Saakashvili entered Georgia secretly, hiding in a semi-trailer truck loaded with milk products, bypassing the customs control.

Garibashvili also recalled the Russia-Georgia war in 2008 and stressed that no sanctions had been imposed by the Western countries on Russia following its invasion.

[31] Tbilisi has responded by calling accusations "misinformation" and "totally unacceptable", asking Kyiv to provide an evidence or apologize.

[32] Nikoloz Samkharadze, Chair of Foreign Relations Committee of Georgian Parliament in an interview with Vice stated that "Georgia is the most exposed country in the world to the Russian aggression.

So, in this circumstances, I think Georgia is punching above its weight when it supports Ukraine at diplomatic forum, politically and also in humanitarian dimension".

[34][35] On June 26, 2022, Ukrainian President Zelensky has signed a decree dismissing Ukraine's Ambassador to Georgia, Ihor Dolhov.

[40] On September 18, 2023, the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) published a statement, saying that some Ukrainian officials were conspiring with the Georgian opposition to overthrow the second Garibashvili government in an allegedly planned "Euro Maidan scenario".

This coup was allegedly planned for the period after a possible European Union's rejection of Georgia's membership candidate status at the end of 2023.