Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Friday that messages on security issues are not disseminated at news conferences, after he was asked by the press about speculations that the President Zoran Milanovic's security is at risk following his statements on the situation in Ukraine.

“The basic principle is that security issues should not be discussed publicly. As far as our services are concerned and that refers to security and intelligence services and the Interior Ministry, they do their job 24 hours a day and I am certain that they are monitoring everything that is relevant to the security of Croatian citizens, including protected persons,” said Bozinovic.

Bozinovic added that security services cooperate with other services and underscored that a press conference is not the place to send messages of that kind.

“Not any serious person, not any service in any country, talks about that in public space,” said Bozinovic.

After President Milanovic’s statement that Croatia would not interfere in the Ukraine crisis, that it would not deploy its troops there and that NATO has nothing to do in Ukraine, he was denounced as pro-Russian collaborator on Ukraine’s online blacklist.