“Aggression of this type against Ukraine represents a denial of all values on which the international order is based, and is violation of all the principles of international law,” Plenković said.
He described Russia’s aggression on Ukraine as brutal.
Commenting on the Ukrainian President’s appeal, Plenković said that the situation resembled what happened to Croatia in 1991.
It is very similar, however, this invasion is of a much larger scale, said the Croatian PM.
This is a clash between democratic systems and the systems that do not change the authorities very often, he said.
Sanctions imposed on Russia without impact on Croatia
The leaders of the European Union on Thursday reached agreement on new sanctions on the Russian financial, energy and transport sectors.
Russian banks Sberbank and VTB hold an interest in the Croatian Fortenova retail and food group, and Plenković said that he did not believe that this kind of the sanctions against the Russian banking system would produce a large impact on the ownership of Fortenova.
In general, Plenković does not think that Croatia’s economy would suffer from big consequences of the sanctions on Russia.
There are discussions on cutting Russia off from the SWIFT global interbank payments system as part of their sanctions against Moscow for invading Ukraine.
We are ready for the sanctions concerning SWIFT, just as most of the EU members are ready, Plenković said in Brussels.
However, media outlets speculate that Germany, Italy, Cyprus and Hungary oppose such sanction.
Concerning the restriction on the delivery of Russian gas supplies, Plenković said efforts were being made to procure gas supplies from Norway, Azerbaijan and Libya and to procure liquefied gas.
In the long run, a new network of gas supplies provision is being created, he said.