The Finance Ministry of Georgia has rebuffed Ukraine’s allegations over aiding Russian smuggling of military, dual and civilian through the Georgian territory.

“This is a completely baseless and absurd accusation. Since the very first days of the imposition of international sanctions on the Russian Federation, Georgia has been exercising strict control over all customs checkpoints in the country and has been monitoring incoming and outgoing cargo. We declare with full responsibility that any goods, both military and dual-use, and all other sanctioned products are subject to strict customs control by the Georgian Government. All our international partners are informed about this in detail. Georgia will continue to exercise strict control in this area and share information with partners," said Georgia’s Ministry of Finance.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Intelligence said earlier today that Moscow is establishing a smuggling channel through the territory of Georgia.

“Representatives of the Georgian security services were instructed by the political leadership not to interfere with the activities of the smugglers,” the Ukrainian military intelligence alleged.