Ukraine Website Puts Croatian President on Black List

The President of the Republic of Croatia is blacklisted/Photo:EPA/MARTIAL TREZZINI

The reason was Milanovic's recent statements that Ukraine had no place in NATO and that the EU had instigated a "coup d'état" in Ukraine in 2014, which overthrew pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry urged the Croatian ambassador in Kyiv, Anica Dzamic, to protest the President's remarks, which in turn were met with a positive response in Russia.

Mirotvorec also cited President Milanovic's remark that, "When asked how Croatia will react to the situation in Ukraine, Milanovic said: we have nothing to do with it," it said, quoting Milanovic.

"Ukraine does not belong to NATO. When Ukraine changed its government, it was a non-democratic movement, it was a coup d'état in which 50 people were killed," Milanović was quoted saying on Mirotvorec.

The blacklist includes the data on about 4,500 Western, Ukrainian and Russian journalists who were accredited by the pro-Russian separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine, which was a condition for them to work in the territory. Many of them later received threats.

The database was established in 2014 following a meeting between Ukrainian politician George Tuka and a former member of Ukraine's domestic intelligence service SBU, known only by the pseudonym "Roman Zaitsev", the London Times said.

"The problem we had then, we still have today. Ex-police officers, ex-soldiers and some political figures still have pro-Russian views. Some have moved to eastern Ukraine or Russia. Some are among us. We had no official database with their names. Peacemaker was created to fill that gap," Tuka told the Times.

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