BiH Ambassador on Ukrainian icon: Everyone should do their job, even Prosecution

“Everyone should do their job, even the Prosecution if they have ground,” Ambassador Zeljko Samardzija told N1.

“The gift and the accompanying note was returned to the gift-giver to do all the check-ups via Interpol if such a thing is needed?! Obviously, no one asked that it be returned. It is now clear that the Ukrainian Embassy diplomatic note was groundless and when the story regarding the icon becomes clear such a diplomatic note would not be welcome in the recipient country because it creates chaos in media communications. I would never do such a thing in the recipient country without clear arguments and requests from my country's competent institutions. That being said, I do not want to comment on anything else any more and please call the Presidency to tell you what else was done. Nobody evaluated the icon and in the Orthodox practice, such icons are small pocket icons carried by the faithful on road trips. That is all I would say about it, nothing else. People in the region are dealing with the earthquakes, viruses, unemployment and someone is constantly creating affairs and amusing the people with cheap hoaxes and accusations,” BiH Ambassador to Russia Samardzija told N1.

BiH Foreign Minister's Office said they have not had any contact with the Ambassador to Russia nor did they have a meeting before or after he arrived at the country on December 24.

Ukrainian Embassy to Bosnia sent a diplomatic note to the Foreign Ministry requesting information regarding the icon for which they claim belongs to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage. The Ministry forwarded the note to the BiH Presidency which has not discussed it yet.