President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday he was not familiar with the EU's idea for Ukrainian soldiers to be trained on European soil, noting that "in principle" he did not support the training of "soldiers for war" in Croatia as this would mean "involving Croatia in the Ukraine war more than necessary," the state news agency Hina reported.

Speaking to reporters, Milanovic – who earlier vocally opposed giving Ukraine candidate status in NATO and the EU – was asked to comment the recent idea floated by ​​European foreign ministers to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers in EU countries.

Croatia’s presidents serve as largely ceremonial figures, but one of the few formal authorities they have is to act as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

“I do not support that idea because I do not support involving Croatia in that war more than it needs to be involved. That would mean bringing the war to Croatia. We are being fair, and we stand (with Ukraine) in solidarity – and that’s it… As the supreme commander (of the Croatian Armed Forces), I will not approve this,” he said.

Milanovic, a former prime minister and longtime leader of the centre-left Social Democratic Party, has long been in conflict with Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, the leader of the ruling conservative party HDZ on policy issues and especially on the war in Ukraine.

While Plenkovic and his government have expressed support for Ukraine and joined every NATO and EU-led initiative since the war began in February, Milanovic has been a vocal proponent of the opposite side of the spectrum and urged caution, offering views similar to Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban. Tuesday was no exception.

Milanovic said that although foreign soldiers come to Croatia for training all the time “training soldiers to fight in a third country is something that needs to be thought about carefully… When it comes to funding, it is up to the government to decide on that,” Milanovic said, adding that he supported donating technical and materiel resources “only if we get substitute resources.”

Although local media attributed importance to Milanovic’s statements, they did so without any context so it is unclear whether Milanovic has any authority to actually prevent Croatia from joining the EU military training scheme for Ukraine, currently called for mainly by Germany and Poland.

“I cannot allow the weakening of the bloodstream of Croatia’s defense system,” Milanovic said, referring to the perceived drain on resources that helping Ukraine might involve. He did not clarify what he would he would or could do if the government decides to share resources with Ukraine.

“Croatia’s defense comes first, and then nothing for a long, long time, then there’s NATO, and everything else comes third,” Milanovic listed the order of Croatia’s priorities.