Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine last year was the continuation of what started in 2014, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday at the cabinet meeting where it was decided that Croatia would raise the Ukrainian flag on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the invasion.

“It is an unprecedented act where Russia invaded the free and independent, internationally recognised territory of Ukraine. It continued what it started in 2014,” Plenkovic said.

Tomorrow, Croatia will mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by raising the Ukrainian flag, the government decided at today’s session.

“The consequences of the aggression were unprecedented and tragic for tens of thousands killed, millions of refugees and exiles, and destroyed infrastructure throughout Ukraine. The consequences of this aggression are also visible in Europe, globally, in Croatia,” said the Prime Minister.

Plenkovic noted that Zagreb has supported Kyiv over the past year – politically, diplomatically, financially, militarily and with humanitarian aid.

“We will continue to do this with full solidarity and the belief that we were taking the right steps at every moment in the past 12 months, and will continue to do so in the future – both bilaterally and within the framework of international institutions,” he said.

Plenkovic added that this morning he met with the Ukrainian community in Croatia and thanked them for “facilitating the acceptance of their compatriots from Ukraine,” who, according to their estimates, numbered between 22,000 and 30,000 at certain times.

Zdenko Lucic, State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, said that Croatia’s total aid to Ukraine exceeded €160 million.

Lucic singled out that the government had provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine with an amount exceeding €6 million and Croatian companies have donated food and medicine to Ukraine worth about €1 million.