TBILISI -- Georgian authorities say a man from the South Caucasus nation has been killed fighting in eastern Ukraine.
On January 15, the Foreign Ministry confirmed earlier reports saying that a Georgian national was killed in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where government forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 4,700 people since April.
Ministry officials identified the Georgian as Shalva Bukhaidze, 30.
They did not say which side he fought on.
Reports have said that there are many volunteers from former Soviet republics fighting on both sides in the conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Last week, authorities in Tajikistan said one of its citizens was killed fighting alongside the separatists, who Kyiv and NATO say have direct military support from Russia.
In December, a court in Kazakhstan sentenced a Kazakh citizen, Yevgeny Vdovenko, to five years in prison for fighting in Luhansk, also on the side of the separatists.
