Kyiv berates Croatian president for saying Crimea won’t return to Ukraine

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Monday criticized Croatian President Zoran Milanovic for saying Crimea would never return to Ukraine’s rule, calling it “acceptable”. I can’t,” he said.

Russia seized the Black Sea Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and Kyiv said it would not abandon efforts to regain control of the region.

In Monday’s remarks detailing his opposition to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv, Milanovic said, “It is clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine.”

“We consider it unacceptable for the statement of the Croatian president to effectively question the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, said on Facebook.

In the same statement, Nikolenko thanked the Croatian government and people for supporting Ukraine since the Russian invasion last February.

“I am very grateful to the Croatian government and people for their decisive support of the Ukrainians in the fight against Russian aggression,” Nikolenko said.

Reporting by Dan Pereschuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage

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