The Ministry of Defense of Russia sent a note to the military attaché of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) that 167 citizens of BiH are fighting on the side of Ukraine against the Russian military forces.
The Ambassador of BiH in Moscow, Zeljko Samardzija, confirmed that the note had arrived and that it involved 167 BiH citizens. The information states that out of the stated number, 17 of them returned home, and 24 died.
Three days ago, the Istraga.ba portal published a document of the Main Directorate for International Military Cooperation of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in which several accusations were made against BiH.
”According to available information, several thousand foreign nationals arrived in Ukraine as mercenaries, to take part in hostilities against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. To date, 167 BiH citizens have arrived in Ukraine, of which 17 have returned, and 24 people died,” it is stated in the act.
It was also stated that “relevant foreign nationals are qualified as mercenaries who are not subject to the norms of international humanitarian law.”
In mid-February this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused BiH of making the Western Balkans a hotbed of crime where “mercenaries are recruited.”
”It is a place to recruit mercenaries involved in conflicts that are gradually escalating, including the United States (U.S.). There is information that mercenaries are being recruited in Kosovo, Albania, and BiH, and then sent to Donbas, among other things, to throw Russia off balance. We are now checking that information again,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
Although BiH officials, such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Bisera Turkovic and BiH Security Minister Selmo Cikotic, requested evidence of the information and denied Lavrov’s allegations, Moscow did not provide it.
After RTRS published this information yesterday, the member of the Presidency of BiH, Milorad Dodik, reacted, although he admits that he was not informed about it.
”I have not been informed, but I know that there is a law in BiH that prohibits citizens from going to foreign battlefields. It is obvious that it was done secretly, outside the institutions, and everyone who returns should be punished according to the valid law,” Dodik emphasized, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
