Russia voices concerns over Ukraine-Croatia contacts

Moscow is concerned over contacts between officials of Ukraine and Croatia on “returning uncontrolled territories,” which run counter to the Minsk peace agreements, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday. In late August, Kiev hosted contacts of Ukraine’s authorities with Croatia’s Former Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, Former Deputy Interior Minister Yoshko Moric and ex-chairman of the government’s committee for refugees and displaced persons Lovre Peykovich. “Judging on the current information from mass media, the meetings discussed issues of “returning uncontrolled territories” based on Croatia’s experience in the 1990s,” the ministry said. This was “negative experience” as Zagreb’s military operations in 1995 resulted in 250,000 Serbian refugees and numerous deaths, it noted. “Any mentioning of “military scenarios” towards Donbass looks especially flawed and immoral now, in the first days of the school ceasefire approved in the Normandy format”, the ministry said. Russia seeks to foster friendly ties with Croatia and calls on Zagreb to “use all possibilities to encourage Kiev to consistently and fully comply with the Minsk agreements for the soonest settlement of the domestic Ukrainian crisis by peaceful means and ensuring sustainable stabilization of situation in Ukraine’s southeast”.