Relations between Ukraine and Georgia saw further strain as Kyiv ordered the Georgian ambassador to leave following the latest court appearance of an increasingly emaciated-looking Mikheil Saakashvili, the jailed Georgian ex-president who is now a Ukrainian citizen. 

But it is Kyiv's more longstanding dissatisfaction with Tbilisi's policies amid the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine that is thought to have led to the decision.

On July 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the Georgian ambassador in Kyiv to go home for consultations, claiming that Russia was killing Saakashvili "at the hands of the Georgian authorities."

"Once again, I call on the Georgian authorities to hand over Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili to Ukraine for the necessary treatment and care," Zelensky wrote in his tweet, using the Ukrainian version of his first name and attaching a screenshot from the court appearance earlier on the same day. 

Saakashvili addressed the court through a live video link from Tbilisi's Vivamedi Hospital. It was his first such public appearance in several months. His visibly emaciated state revived concerns about the state of his health.

The former president was jailed by Georgian authorities upon his controversial return as he smuggled himself into the country on the eve of the 2021 local elections. He had been sentenced in absentia to six years in prison on abuse of power charges while he was in self-imposed exile following the end of his presidency in 2013. He is standing trial on two more cases related to his activities as president, plus illegal border crossing.

Saakashvili embarked on a 50-day hunger strike on the day of his arrest. His health deteriorated and he has been in and out of hospitals ever since. The government has faced repeated controversies over his treatment. 

His legal team alleged heavy metal poisoning, while the Georgian Public Defender's Office has vouched for the deferral of his sentence on health grounds as many hoped for his transfer abroad for treatment citing his rapidly declining health and the limits of the Georgian healthcare system. 

After lengthy proceedings, Georgian courts denied the request. In May, the European Court of Human Rights also denied a request for interim measures to immediately transfer Saakashvili to Poland for treatment. While no firsthand document of the court's reasoning is publicly available, the decision has been widely cited by Georgian authorities as evidence that the ex-president had been provided with adequate care. Saakashvili's family and lawyers, on the other hand, noted that despite the refusal to grant interim measures, the Strasbourg court was yet to rule on the merits of the claim that his rights had been violated.

And then in June, after a short silence, Saakashvili announced he was going to actively engage in Georgian politics despite earlier claims by his associates that he was out of the game. But concerns about his health reemerged as his latest court appearance showed him in visibly dire condition, prompting renewed calls for his release, including from the Ukrainian authorities. 

Kyiv's demand that the Georgian envoy leave for consultations "represents an extreme form of escalation in diplomatic relations, and it is regrettable that Kyiv is taking this step against a friendly state and people," the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on July 4. 

The ministry said the decision "inflicts heavy damage on the strategic relations" and called it "direct interference in the domestic affairs of the sovereign state." 

But it added that Georgia would not pursue further measures against Ukraine since it is a country at war.

The latest controversy marks a continuation of the longstanding tension between Tbilisi and Kyiv. 

The relations between the two countries that have traditionally viewed each other as strategic partners were far from ideal already before Russia's full-scale invasion last year. They were already tainted by the fact that Georgian opposition figures were holding offices in Kyiv to Tbilisi's dismay. (Saakashvili, too, served as a head of the National Reforms Council under Zelensky prior to his return to Georgia). 

But relations hit a new low amid the war. Kyiv has been dissatisfied with Tbilisi's Moscow-appeasing stance and lukewarm expressions of solidarity towards Ukraine. Ukraine recalled its ambassador to Georgia a week after the start of a full-scale invasion, and he has not returned since.

Tbilisi, seizing on initial calls by some Ukrainian officials on Georgia to move to retake its breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (thus effectively opening a second front against Russia), developed a full-scale conspiracy theory about Kyiv (along with the West and the local opposition) trying to drag Georgia into the war. Georgian officials have also continued to express discontent over Kyiv offering government posts to controversial former Georgian officials.

Relations deteriorated yet further when Kyiv sanctioned close associates of Bidzina Ivanishvili, a Georgian billionaire widely seen as the country's informal ruler. Next to be sanctioned was Georgian Airways, the country's flag carrier that embraced Russia's resumption of direct flights with Georgia against clear Ukrainian objections.

But alongside often insensitive remarks by Georgian officials about Ukraine’s struggle, Tbilisi has continued to claim that it kept providing political support for Kyiv in international forums, sending humanitarian aid, and making sure that Georgian territory is not used for sanctions circumvention by Moscow.

It's unclear how far this latest showdown will go. Experts disagree over whether Kyiv's move amounts to a diplomat's expulsion or is merely a one-time expression of general dissatisfaction. 

In a July 6 interview with Georgia's pro-opposition Pirveli TV, Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called the move a "political act" to show dissatisfaction with Tbilisi's politics towards Ukraine after "words turned out not be enough."

According to Podolyak, the "demarche" demonstrated that "we do not agree with the politics of the Georgian authorities and tell the Georgian government to stop talking about Ukraine in offensive terms, stop pushing the Russian propaganda narrative in Georgia, and stop spreading disinformation about Ukraine."