Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković rejected as propaganda the accusation of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Croatia, in the act of “militant Russophobia”, allegedly did not allow a humanitarian flight to evacuate Russian diplomats.
“As far as I know, these people left Croatia. I think they flew over Belgrade or something like that. There is no Russophobia here,” Plenković told reporters after a joint session of the HDZ presidency and national council.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that official Zagreb “in its militant Russophobia” reached a point where it denied Russian diplomats a humanitarian flight in a non-diplomatic manner, violating the rules of decency and standards of international communication.
Croatia responded similarly to most countries to the “unprovoked” attack on Croatia’s friendly country Ukraine, Plenković said, adding that Russia “continues to shell cities, kill civilians, soldiers, women and children”, Hina reports.
He pointed out that Croatia gave a much longer deadline for the evacuation of Russian diplomats than other countries.
On April 11, Croatia joined a number of European countries and due to the Russian aggression on Ukraine, decided to expel 18 Russian diplomats and six members of the administrative staff, and they were given a deadline to leave the country until today, April 25.