Ukraine’s minister for temporarily-occupied territories, Vadym Chernysh, said in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek on Wednesday that the UNTAES mission, which helped to peacefully reintegrate temporarily-occupied areas of eastern Croatia after the 1991-1995 war, was a positive experience for Croatia and Ukraine wanted to learn from it.

After a meeting of the Ukrainian delegation with Ivica Vrkic, the mayor of Osijek and former head of the government office for peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region, Chernysh said at a press conference that Croatia had a unique war experience, adding that they had come to learn from Croatia and to hear not just positive experiences but also mistakes that had occurred.

He thanked Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic for inviting them, saying that it was very important to Ukraine that Croatia had launched this initiative and offered its assistance because “only true friends do that.”

“We wanted to come here and talk specifically to people who had worked on it. It is important to obtain information from both the national and the local level in order to get a full picture,” he added.

Chernysh said that Ukraine was the target not only of classic warfare but also of hybrid warfare in several areas, emphasising that in Ukraine, Russia was not only using its military and media, but also non-governmental organisations, to escalate the conflict.

“As for your country, you can see a lot of activities being undertaken by Russia, and they are not classic military activities. We have a lot of experience about the way Russia operates and a lot can be learned from us in that regard,” the Ukrainian minister said.

Osijek Mayor Ivica Vrkic said it was essential that the two sides create a relationship of mutual trust and find common ground, which would ensure an end to the war and the development of a free and democratic society.

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