Plenković: Zoran Milanović is a Putin sympathizer

SARAJEVO; (Patria) - The verbal conflict between Croatian President Zoran Milanović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković continued today. Responding to Milanović's claims that Croatia does not have enough weapons and to the fact that the president "sent" him to the front in Ukraine, Plenković said: "Things are as clear as they can be. Croatia was breathing normally until he returned from Chile and started polluting the public space, it's the same repertoire from UDBA onwards again.

Milanović is a Putin sympathizer, a man who said he did not want Croatia to participate in the EU mission to help Ukraine, and this is now clear even to these political dwarfs who were not in favor. We have brought them and him out. He pretends not to be the president of a country that is in the EU. He behaves as if Croatia should be non-aligned, leading us into foreign policy isolation."

He then continued: "During Minister Banožić's term, Rafale fighter jets were purchased, the issue of Bradley combat armored vehicles was resolved, and air defense is being procured. We will buy more Black Hawks so that he can ride in those helicopters even more during some excursions. The Croatian army has never invested more than during our term," Croatian media report.

Plenković said that "if we followed Milanović's views, we would not have entered Schengen, the Eurozone, we would not have helped Ukraine, nor condemned the aggression."

"This is an irresponsible, unserious, and isolationist policy, and extremely pro-Putin. This is a policy that should lead Croatia to a position where, unlike all Western countries, we would be the ones to have the most sympathy for Putin's regime, which is killing Ukrainians, expelling them, destroying their energy infrastructure, which is causing our crisis," says Plenković.