Croatian President Zoran Milanovic spoke to reporters on Monday at a ceremony for the send-off of Croatian soldiers to serve in a NATO mission in Lithuania, where he said that he opposes sending ordnance to Ukraine and claimed that "it is completely clear that Crimea will never again be a part of Ukraine."

Milanovic said that sending ordnance to Ukraine cannot help end the war there.

“Until you realise that Serbia and Russia are not the same, that Germany and Russia are not the same and that no other country except Russia and the United States are the same… (until you realise) that unfortunately painful fact and danger, these conversations will make no sense,” Milanovic claimed, adding that he believes that Russians, “because they are cynics”, will point to the annexation of Kosovo.

“Who annexed Kosovo? The international community, including us. (Kosovo) was forcibly taken from Serbia…. It was not annexation, it was snatching, a part of Serbia’s territory was taken away. How do you call that? Extraction… I’m not questioning Kosovo but rather the entire concept where one thinks they can do anything when it suits them, but when the other side does it, then it’s a crime,” Milanovic said.

Milanovic claimed that “it is entirely clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine” and that Croatia, aside from sending humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and condemning the aggression, should not get involved in the conflict.

“It is deeply immoral what we as part of the West are doing because there is actually no solution. The solution is not a change of government in Russia. German tanks will additionally unite Russians. They will make them become closer with the Chinese…. It is my duty to make sure we move away from that, to not be circus poodles. Yes to humanitarian assistance, condemnation of the aggression, but any involvement in (the war) is lethally dangerous,” Milanovic said, adding that no US tank will be sent to Ukraine, but only German ones.

Milanovic’s views on the war in Ukraine differ from those of most Western politicians. He maintains that other politicians are not saying what he is saying because they are “scared to death” while maintaining relations with Russia, stressing that unlike them, he does not have relations with Russia.

When told by N1’s Ivan Hrstic that he had a number of wrong estimates about Ukraine, specifically his statement that Russia would not attack the country, to which Milanovic called the reporter “a political agitator”.

“You have not seen the world or spoken with important people. We are not equal interlocutors. You are an impassioned amateur,” Milanovic told Hrstic after saying that he was “attacking those who did not share his views.”