Saakashvili confirmed as Odesa governor

KYIV – Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been appointed governor of Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast, a move that could exacerbate tensions between Kyiv and Moscow amid Ukraine’s shaky ceasefire with Russian-backed separatists. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made the announcement on May 30 at a televised event in the region’s capital city of Odesa alongside Mr. Saakashvili, calling the former Georgian president a “great friend of Ukraine.” Interfax reports Mr. Poroshenko also signed a decree granting Mr. Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship. The announcement followed a recommendation by Mr. Poroshenko’s Cabinet that Mr. Saakashvili lead the Odesa region. Mr. Saakashvili was Georgia’s president during its brief 2008 war with Russia over the Moscow-backed breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia. Many Western officials see that conflict as a precursor to the Kremlin’s seizure and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea territory in March 2014 and the ensuing war between Kyiv’s forces and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 6,100 people since April 2014. A fierce and relentless critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Saakashvili is loathed by officials in Moscow and regularly mocked on state-run Russian television. Mr. Saakashvili has been serving as the head of Ukraine’s Consultative International Council of Reforms since February. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti)