The Georgian Foreign Ministry said “it does not recognize the referendum” held in Crimea on March 16 “amid pressure from Russian armed forces, in defiance of the universally recognized norms and principles of international law, with complete disregard for the Ukrainian national laws.”

“Russia's attempt to annex Crimea represents a blatant violation of the commitments it has undertaken both under multilateral and bilateral agreements,” it said in a statement on Sunday night.

It reaffirmed Georgia’s support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and called on the international community “to consolidate efforts to make the Russian Federation order its troops back to bases, to immediately de-escalate the situation in Crimea as well as in other regions of Ukraine, to enter into direct talks with the Ukrainian authorities and to cooperate with the international community in order to find ways to deal with the existing situation.”