President V. Yanukovych awarded Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia (Irakli Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili) with the Order “For Merits” of the 1st degree.
The presidential website posted the decree regarding the award on January 9. The document says that the order was presented to the patriarch “for his outstanding personal contribution to the development of the Ukrainian-Georgian cultural and spiritual relations and his selfless work of many years.”