Bosnia and Herzegovina chairman Milorad Dodik said on Sunday he was willing to apologise and return an icon he gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov if it was established that it had been stolen during the Ukraine war.

he icon has been returned to BiH due to suspicion that it is a stolen item.

“Let Ukraine deliver proof that the icon is their property. We will return it with the apology that we didn't know,” Dodik said in Banja Luka.

He gave it to Lavrov when he visited BiH, but Moscow returned it to BiH in the wake of suspicion that it might have been stolen during the war in Ukraine.

In the meantime, Ukraine has requested that the icon be returned.

Dodik, however, claims there is no proof of that and that the item is not being officially sought. “The police in BiH have confirmed the icon is not on Interpol's Stolen Works of Art database.”

He accused Bosniak politicians of having made up this scandal.