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Two Kyiv demands on 3 July 2023
Summary
A look back at how Ukraine's president paired a call for stronger air defences with a diplomatic request to Tbilisi.
What did Ukraine's leadership press for in the days leading up to 5 July 2023? Reports from 3 July show two separate demands, one military and one diplomatic.
On 3 July, Russia launched drone attacks on Sumy, killing two people and injuring 19 others. In response, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a major upgrade of anti-aircraft defences. The strike formed part of the wider Russian campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure that had run since 2022.
The same day, Zelenskyy asked Georgian ambassador Gela Dumbadze to return home within 48 hours. The purpose was to negotiate the transfer of Mikheil Saakashvili, the imprisoned former Georgian president and a Ukrainian citizen, to a Ukrainian clinic. The request cited Saakashvili's declining health.
Taken together, the two moves show Kyiv pursuing very different goals at once: protecting civilians in a city such as Sumy from aerial attack, and pressing a bilateral case with a neighbouring state over the treatment of a Ukrainian citizen. The 48-hour window put the Georgian side under a short deadline, with the ambassador's recall to negotiate the stated mechanism.
