Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili addressed pro-Europe protesters in Kiev on Saturday.

“Ukrainian triumph will put an end to the era of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and it will start here, on this very square,” he said.

Saakashvili, who graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kiev in 1992 after serving with the Soviet border troops in Ukraine, addressed the rally in Ukrainian reading out from notes.

After arriving in Kiev on Friday, Saakashvili, who has not been in Georgia since early November, met one of the Ukrainian opposition leaders, Vitaly Klitschko, whose UDAR party is a partner of the United National Movement (UNM), which is chaired by Saakashvili. Klitschko visited Tbilisi and attended UNM congress in December, 2012.

“I am Georgian, I am Ukrainian, therefore I am European,” he said.

Earlier on Saturday he told Tbilisi-based Rustavi 2 TV in Kiev that developments in Ukraine are of vital importance for Georgia. “Georgia’s fate is also being decided here. We can’t remain passive observers,” he said.