Defence Minister Ivan Anusic said on Friday that President Zoran Milanovic has once again banned Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces Tihomir Kundid from attending a meeting of the parliamentary Defence Committee scheduled for Monday. He accused Milanovic of "harassing Kundid and the armed forces".

The NATO mission “Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine” (NSATU) is to be discussed at the meeting, Anusic told the press.

He called on journalists to ask the president: “How long will he continue to behave like this? What is happening now is an attack on Croatia’s state institutions, on the foundations of the Croatian state. This is a classic abuse of power.”

“Milanovic is harassing the entire armed forces”

Anusic said he would attend the Defence Committee meeting if invited and that he would continue to work in accordance with the law.

“Only on Milanovic’s orders was the representative of the armed forces, who has a role as a soldier, as someone who does not speak from a political point of view… twice prevented from telling the truth to the public,” he added.

Anusic called on the press to ask Milanovic “why he is harassing and bullying a man who is a hero of the Homeland War, a man he nominated for the post of Chief of the General Staff.”

“A man who has never served a day in the Croatian army is now acting as if he can harass the Chief of the General Staff, which effectively means that he is harassing the entire armed forces and preventing them from fulfilling their duties,” Anusic said.