Bombshell announcement ex-Georgian president Saakashvili is in love with sultry Ukrainian politician came as surprise, wife admits

The wife of former Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili has described her shock at his unexpected declaration of love for a top Ukrainian lawmaker before dramatically flying back to his homeland to be arrested and put on trial.

On Wednesday, Sandra Roelofs revealed that the news of her husband’s relationship with Yelyzaveta Yasko, an MP from the governing Servant of the People party, came out of the blue.

"Many confused friends and associates are asking me about my personal life. I will not hide from you that the content of the video, made on Friday night, was unexpected for me, and the form it took was completely unacceptable," Roelofs wrote on Facebook.

“Despite my personal emotions, I remain calm, I believe that we will emerge victorious from this struggle,” she added in her post.

On Friday, Yasko published a video on social media announcing her relationship with Saakashvili, who was stripped of his Georgian nationality after fleeing the country in 2013 and is now a Ukrainian citizen serving as the head of the country’s National Reform Council. He was detained last week after re-entering Georgia and prosecutors are now seeking to hand him six years in jail for abuses of power, including a violent crackdown on the opposition.

"We recorded this video before Mikhail left for Georgia. About the fact we are together. About the fact we love and support each other,” she wrote, also adding that “love and struggle for our state is a noble cause! And I support his struggle. Because only real fighters with such a big heart and love for their state they can change the world! Only people like Misha are ready to take risks for their homeland. I fully support him.”

The couple’s declaration of their love came before a series of allegations that Saakashvili had plotted to kill opposition figures in Georgia in order to frame the government. The country’s prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, made the claims earlier this week, citing intelligence obtained by the Georgian secret service. Garibashvili has pledged that the former president will serve his full term in prison.

Saakashvili has since announced he is staging a hunger strike whilst in detention in Rustavi and, despite now entering his seventh day of protest, is said to be “cheerful and active in his prison cell,” according to Nika Gvaramia, general director of the opposition television channel Mtavari Arkhi.

In her Facebook post, Yasko called on Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office of Affairs, the country’s embassy in Georgia, UN officials, US embassies in Kiev and Tbilisi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself to protect Saakashvili as a citizen of Ukraine.

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