If Serbia wants to join the EU, it must introduce sanctions against Russia, President Zoran Milanović said on Monday, commenting on talks between Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, held in Zagreb on Sunday.

“If it wants to join the European Union, Serbia must sever its current relationship with Russia, it has to. It must introduce sanctions,” Milanović told reporters after attending an event organised by the SSSH trade union federation in Zagreb to celebrate International Workers’ Day.

In a message to Serbia, Milanović said that the war in Ukraine had been going on for a year and that “they still have not made their position clear.”

In a comment on PM Plenković’s meeting with Serbian PM Brnabić on Sunday, Milanović said that he was being perceived as a Russophile while it was normal for Plenković “to meet with and make big yet rather unclear plans with people who are the Russian platform in Europe.”

“Brnabić is Mr Vučić’s spokesperson, she is his courier. Of course, I am not underestimating that job but one should be aware of who plays what role,” Milanović said, calling on Serbian officials to stop “with the nonsense about ethnic cleansing having been carried out in Croatia.”

The Serbian prime minister said last October that Croatia had proven to be an enemy to Serbia and in May that Croatia had been ethnically cleansed.

Brnabić on Sunday attended the 4th Grand Assembly of the Serb National Council (SNV) in Zagreb.

“The SNV does not represent the Serbs in Croatia, it is a fraud, it is not a representative institution,” Milanović said.

“Vučić appointed (Serbian Croat leader Tomislav) Žigmanov (a government minister) as a gesture of goodwill, while in reality he does not need him because he has the majority (in the parliament). Plenković is being held hostage by Pupovac and vice versa. That’s not a good relationship in politics,” Milanović said.