Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine – Croatian president

SARAJEVO, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Crimea, the Black Sea
peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, will never again be part of
Ukraine, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Monday in
remarks detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid
to Kyiv.

In December, Croatian lawmakers rejected a proposal that the
country join a European Union mission in support of the
Ukrainian military, reflecting deep divisions between Milanovic
and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

A vocal critic of Western policy in Ukraine, Milanovic has
said he does not want his country, the EU’s newest member state,
to face what he has called potentially disastrous consequences
over the 11-month-old war in Ukraine.

What the West is doing about Ukraine “is deeply immoral
because there is no solution (to the war),” Milanovic told
reporters during a visit to military barracks in the eastern
town of Petrinja, referring to Western military support for
Kyiv.

He added that the arrival of German tanks in Ukraine would
only serve to drive Russia closer to China.

“It is clear that Crimea will never again be part of
Ukraine,” Milanovic added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to restore
Ukrainian rule over Crimea, seized and annexed by Russia in 2014
in a move not recognised by most other countries.

Russia says a referendum held after Russian forces seized
the peninsula showed Crimeans genuinely want to be part of
Russia. The referendum is not recognised by most countries.

Milanovic criticised Western countries for using double
standards in international politics, saying Russia would invoke
what he called the international community’s “annexation of
Kosovo” as an excuse for taking parts of Ukraine.

Milanovic was referring to Kosovo’s declaration of
independence in 2008 following a 1998-1999 war in which NATO
countries bombed rump-Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and
Montenegro, to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo.

“We recognised Kosovo against the will of a state (Serbia)
to which Kosovo belonged,” he said, cautioning that he was not
questioning Kosovo’s independence but the concept of Western
double standards.

Milanovic, a Croatian former premier from the Social
Democratic party (SDP), has embraced an anti-EU stance since he
took the mostly ceremonial job of president, aligning his
policies with those of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and
Bosnian Serb secessionist leader Milorad Dodik.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by William Maclean)