Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko has said that claims by the Russian Prosecutor's Office Investigative Committee that Ukrainian soldiers and members of the Ukrainian National Assembly and Ukrainian People's Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO) political organization were involved in attacks on South Ossetia in August 2008 are untrue, Kyiv Post reported.
"Everybody won't like my answer again. My fundamental position lies in the fact that Ukraine was and is not a party in this conflict. We're not an aggressor in this situation… So we don't need any comments on these or those claims, especially when they are misleading," he told Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday.
"This is complete nonsense," Nalyvaichenko said, adding that last year, the SBU informed the public, including the international community, "about fabricated cases and attempts to hire our citizens in order to pull them into the territory of Abkhazia last year."
"Accusations of the alleged participation of Ukrainians in this or that armed conflict … are untrue claims," he said.
Nalyvaichenko also called on all sides to abide by a "major principle – international law."
"There were international observers in Georgia, particularly those from the United Nations and the OSCE, and they conducted monitoring and have irrefutable evidence … and true documents on what actually happened on the territory of Georgia," he said.
