Ukrainian crisis

Former president of Georgia seeks to free Ukraine from Moscow’s orbit

In Ukraine’s last-ditch battle to stamp out official thievery and wrest the nation from Russia’s orbit, an unlikely leader is heading the charge. Mikheil Saakashvili, the crusading ex-president of Georgia, is trying to upend Ukraine’s most lawless region as the new governor of the smuggling stronghold of Odessa. A man who led his tiny nation into war with mighty Russia has taken up a new fight in a high-profile appointment in a fellow post-Soviet state that was a slap at the Kremlin.