Tskitishvili was born in Marneuli in 1950. He graduated from the Tbilisi Artillery College in 1972 and the Leningrad Artillery Academy in 1980. He served in the army of the Soviet Union, rising to the rank of colonel in 1985. After the retirement from the Soviet military in 1991, he was instrumental in founding the National Guard of Georgia and took command of its 1st Brigade. In August 1991, he was appointed First Deputy Commander of the National Guard. He became Chief of General Staff of the Georgian military and First Deputy Defense Minister of Georgia after the overthrow of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia in January 1992. He was promoted to the rank of major-general in August 1992. With Georgia descending into chaos of a civil war and military collapse, Tskitishvili, with his Russian counterpart General Mikhail Kolesnikov signed in Moscow, on 9 October 1993, a Russian-Georgian treaty, granting to Russia several key military bases and facilities in Georgia.