giorgi_barateli

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TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian TV channels reported Monday that one more of the country’s volunteer fighters had died in the war in southeastern Ukraine.

24 year old Giorgi Barateli’s death was reported by the Ukrainian website Tsenzor, which quoted Georgian political commentator Gela Vasadze.

The Georgian consulate in Ukraine confirmed that Barateli had died and offered the family assistance with transporting the body home.

The circumstances and location of Barateli’s death are unclear, but on Georgian TV he was said to have died from a mine explosion.

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is currently governor of Odessa, praised Barateli on his Facebook page.

He wrote that he was born in Sukhumi, Abkhazia, one of Georgia’s two breakaway regions.

“He was a volunteer of the 93th brigade from Sukhumi,” Saakashvili wrote, adding that he spoke with another volunteer soldier called Yaroslav who told him that Barateli went to fight in Ukraine so that his father and all of Georgia would be proud of him.

Barateli is at least the fourth Georgian fighter who has died in the war in southeastern Ukraine.