Jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has appealed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to include him on the list of civilian prisoners of the Russian-Ukrainian war "with the corresponding legal consequences." As a Ukrainian citizen, he believes he is "illegally held by the pro-Russian regime in Georgia."

"I want to ask you, as you did in 2019, when you returned my illegally revoked citizenship, to include me on the list of civilian prisoners of this war with the corresponding legal consequences. I know that Ukrainians don't abandon their own, and I'm counting on you," Saakashvili emphasized.

This move comes as Saakashvili is being returned from a prison hospital to a prison in Georgia, where he claims persecution continues and where he was previously poisoned. His lawyers note that his health remains critical, and tests show the presence of heavy metals and arsenic in his body.