Croatia Will Not Be Involved in NATO’s Ukraine Crisis

Jan. 26, 2022 (EIRNS)—Croatia’s President Zoran Milanović said his country will in no way becoming involved in the Ukrainian crisis, nor send troops, and insisted that Ukraine does not belong in NATO, and it was the “triggered a coup in Ukraine in 2014 when the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted,” Croatian news agency N1 quoted him as saying yesterday. He further said, according to Euroactiv, that the crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine or Russia, but is connected with the dynamics of U.S. internal policy led by President Joe Biden and his administration, and that “matters of international security reflect inconsistencies and dangerous behavior” by the U.S. administration.

He said the Democratic Party and Republican Party, “who until recently justified the play-safe and peaceful policy” of former President Donald Trump toward Moscow, are now mounting pressure on the Pentagon and Biden to take a tough stance toward Russia. “All that is happening in the antechamber of Russia. One must reach a deal that will take account of the security interests of Russia,” Milanovic said.

“Croatia will not send any troops in case of an escalation. On the contrary, it will recall all troops, to the last Croatian soldier.” He said there are other ways to preserve Ukraine in “its entirety or 99% of its territory” and “to help it economically.”

N1 further quoted Milanovic, that after the overthrow of Yanukovych in 2014, “the story was as follows.... Ukraine is going west, it has nothing in common with Russia, the customs union with Russia and former Soviet countries is bad for Ukraine, while the EU will be a land of milk and honey.” Eight years later, he said, “Ukraine is still one of the most corrupt countries in the world, stagnating economically and it has got nothing from the EU.”