ZAGREB, 1 March 2022 - Red Cross Croatia on Tuesday made a fundraising appeal for Ukrainian  refugees and displaced persons following Russia's invasion of their country.

Red Cross Croatia said that money can be donated via its bank account,  IBAN: HR0923600001503056530, Poziv na broj odobrenja 705, Zagrebačka banka d.d., Zagreb, Trg bana J. Jelačića 10, primatelj Hrvatski Crveni križ, Ulica Crvenog križa 14-16 Zagreb.

For donations from abroad, the BIC (SWIFT) code is ZABAHR2XXXX

Donations can also be made via mobile phone apps using the 2D barcode.

All the proceeds will be used to assist refugees and displaced persons who are being cared for by the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent in Ukraine and other countries which have taken in refugees, including Croatia.

February 28th, 2022 - The Croatian Museum of Naïve Art in Zagreb honours the late Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko with a virtual exhibition

Maria Prymachenko (1908-1997) was a self-taught village folk artist from Ukraine, known for incredibly imaginative and colourful work featuring fantastic beings, lush flora and traditional motifs from everyday life in rural Ukraine.

In 2007, the Croatian Museum of Naïve Art put on an exhibition of the renowed artist's work, under the high patronage of the Embassy of the Republic of Ukraine in Croatia. The exhibition featured 24 artworks on loan from the Maria Prymachenko Foundation in Ukraine and the Oleg Pinchuk and Lilia Dobzhanska Collection.

The Zagreb museum is now revisiting the exhibition with a virtual edition. The curated selection of Prymachenko's work includes numerous paintings featuring imaginary beings - animals dreamed up in the artist’s imagination and inspired by folk tales and legends. Their titles, both descriptive and ambiguous, indicate possible interpretations of the works: the titular painting, for example, is titled ‘A Dragon Descends on Ukraine and Gets Entangled in the Greenery’.

M. Prymachenko, A Dragon Descends on Ukraine... (1987) / Croatian Museum of Naive Art

As stated by the academic Mykola Zhulinsky: ‘It appears that her memory treasures and wants to show us the pagan, pre-Christian fantasies about the world around us, to present us with these fantastic characters, patterns, magical signs and symbols, borne of our ancestors’ imagination hundreds and hundreds of years ago’ (quoted from the 2007 exhibition catalogue).

In a chilling turn of events, a few days after the museum in Zagreb put up the virtual exhibition commemorating the renowned Ukrainian artist, news broke out that a museum in the Ukrainian city of Ivankiv, where 25 of Prymachenko’s artworks were kept, was destroyed by the invading Russian forces. The Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum was burned to the ground.

The selection of works featured by the Croatian Museum of Naïve Art, speaking of the eternal battle of good and evil, seems more relevant than ever before.

Browse the curated selection of Prymachenko’s sublime work on the pages of the Croatian Museum of Naïve Art.

ZAGREB, 26 Feb 2022 - Hundreds of people gathered in Zagreb's Zrinjevac park on Saturday to show support and solidarity with Ukraine and Ukrainians as part of a drive aimed at sending out anti-war messages and signalling Croatia's readiness to help Ukrainian refugees.

The drive called "Enough of wars - we want peace!" was organised by the Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) to enable everyone to share messages of peace,  encouragement, empathy and solidarity with the people of Ukraine who has been attacked and dragged into a war, as well as with the protesters in Russia and around the world against regimes which create wars and violence, said Sandra Kasunić of CMS.

She said the turnout at Zrinjevac was a sign of unity in condemning war and destruction and their deep and long-lasting consequences.

The position of the CMS is that Croatia must make every effort, through diplomacy and the policy of dialogue, to prevent the violence from escalating further, guided by the principle of protecting people's lives and resolving the Ukraine conflict peacefully, Kasunić said.

If necessary, she added, the CMS will organise more drives "to continue to channel" anti-war messages.

Among those at Zrinjevac were representatives of the Green-Left Bloc, whose MP Sandra Benčić said that they wanted to show solidarity with the citizens of Ukraine and express readiness to receive refugees.

"The most important thing at the moment is that the international community ensure corridors for civilians, to pull them out of war zones and accommodate them in European Union countries, including Croatia," she said.

That's why the We Can! party, by supporting parliament's Declaration on Ukraine yesterday, moved an amendment under which Croatia will extend concrete help by receiving and accommodating refugees, Benčić added.

"The City of Zagreb has already taken measures and defined potential accommodation capacities, which will expand depending on the needs, just as the City of Bjelovar has done," she said, adding that Croatia is acting responsibility and with solidarity.

Benčić said she hoped the situation in Ukraine would not spill over to the wider region or become a global war, adding that one must keep that in mind and prevent it through diplomacy and sanctions against Russia.

She said the sanctions "should be much tougher and more direct so that they really force Putin to sit at the negotiating table." She said the extent of the war was not evident yet and that "we all hope this ends as soon as possible. We appeal to absolutely every international actor to create pressure... so that negotiations begin."

Participants in the rally carried messages which said "Stop the war, life has no price", "Let's unite against war", "Down with imperialism" and "No to war".

They were joined by Ukrainian citizens living in Zagreb who were draped in the Ukrainian flag, as well as representatives of the Croatian-Ukrainian Society.

The Ukrainians told the press they were sad and concerned about their relatives and friends in Ukraine, and thanked Croatia for the support shown so far with the message "The Ukrainian people does not surrender."

Ukrainians in Split protest against war

In Split, dozens of Ukrainians today protested against the war in Ukraine and called on everyone in Croatia to help their compatriots in the most difficult moments of their lives.

Some of those Ukrainians have been living in Split for a while, while several arrived just before Russia invaded their country.

This, the second protest in Split since the war in Ukraine began was again organised by the CVIT Association for Ukrainian Culture in Dalmatia.

The protesters carried the Ukrainian flag and banners calling for the war to stop. They said they would do everything to help Ukraine.

Viktorija Balan of CVIT said more Ukrainians were expected in Split in the days ahead, asking everyone who could receive them to do so.

ZAGREB, 26 Feb 2022 - Croatian reporters waiting in a long line at a Ukrainian border crossing to enter Poland on Saturday took five Ukrainian children in their van so they could meet with their mother on the Polish side of the border.

"There are many families with children. We, too, have taken five children in our van and will try to drive them to the border crossing. The police asked us to. The children's mother is on the other side of the border, in Poland," N1 television reporter Ana Mlinarić said in a broadcast.

Croatian reporters are waiting to leave Ukraine in a kilometres-long line near a border crossing with Poland. Mlinarić tweeted that thousands of Ukrainians are trying to leave the country, fleeing from war.

N1 reporters are sharing the van with crews from RTL and Nova TV who left Kyiv yesterday.

ZAGREB, 26 Feb 2022 - Croatia can provide for 3,500 persons from Ukraine at the moment and plans are being made so that up to 17,000 can be accommodated, Davor Spevec of the Civil Protection Directorate said in Slavonski Brod on Saturday.

The first six persons from Ukraine arrived in Croatia yesterday and they did not need the assistance of public services as they had private accommodation, he said.

"We have plans and places. They are hotels, hostels, dormitories... throughout Croatia," Spevec said, adding that if necessary bigger accommodation capacity will be provided.

He was in Slavonski Brod to attend a ceremony marking European 112 Day, International Civil Protection Day and Croatian Civil Protection Day.

ZAGREB, 26 Feb 2022 - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday thanked Croatia for its support to Kyiv and to sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Kuleba held a telephone conversation with Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman.

"Zagreb recalls the early 1990s when Ukraine helped Croatia through practical decisions during the Homeland War. Croatia is now reciprocating for our support. I thank Croatia for its support to the EU sanctions against the Russian invaders," the Ukrainian minister tweeted.

On 11 December 1991, Ukraine recognised Croatia, being thus the first United Nations member state to do that. Ukraine did it after Slovenia and Lithuania, which also at that time had not still gained international recognition, recognised Croatia.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 26 Feb 2022 - The head of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Križevci, a diocese of the Catholic Church for Eastern Catholics of Byzantine Rite in the northern Croatia, on Friday expressed solidarity with all in Ukraine affected by the war.

Bishop Milan Stipić issued a letter in which he expressed "Christian and brotherly solidarity" with the Ukrainians.

Last October, the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Križevci, marked the 120th anniversary of the arrival of ethnic Ukrainians in Croatia, and in attendance at the ceremony was Ambassador Vasyl Kyrylych. Ukrainians started settling in Croatia at the beginning of the 20th century, most of them had come from western Ukraine in Craotian areas that used to be parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time.

The reverend recalls that his eparchy included believers of the Ukrainian ethnicity and that they are very concerned about the destiny of their family members and relatives in Ukraine.

"We, together with the whole Christian world, appeal to world leaders for finding a peaceful solution to the current conflict and for the end of the hostilities in Ukraine as well as for making efforts to prevent the spillover of this conflict to other parts of the world," Stipić says in his letter.

The Caritas charity of this eparchy is also collecting funds for the assistance to Ukraine.

The Greek Catholic Church is a Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See.

ZAGREB, 25 Feb 2022 - President Zoran Milanović is attending a virtual emergency meeting of NATO heads of state or government on Friday, convened following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and ahead of the meeting he said that Croatia, as an EU and NATO member, would act within its obligations, Milanović's office said.

He also said that "our role is to be loyal to our allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and to do everything that is possible right now from the humanitarian, human and diplomatic aspect."

"We should also be aware that we are a Western country, a Western culture and civilisation, and that's why we are in NATO," said Milanović.

Earlier, Milanović strongly condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine and met with the heads of the Croatian army and intelligence services.

ZAGREB, 25 Feb 2022 - Croatia's Red Cross (HCK) expresses deep concern due to the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and, as part of the International Red Cross movement and the Red Crescent, it has put its forces on alert in case it becomes necessary to accept refugees, HCK reported on Friday.

Based on current forecasts, a large wave of refugees can be expected from Ukraine in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania who will receive aid from national Red Cross associations in those countries. Those associations are part of the Neighbours Help First network, which is currently coordinated by HCK, a press release said.

If refugees will need to be accepted in Croatia, HCK will be ready to provide help. Currently, HCK is identifying possible reception capacities in Croatia.

HCK has activated its search services, which is already in cooperation with the International Red Cross in preparing activities for displaced persons and refugees, and it will assist in identifying persons and connecting families should refugees start arriving in Croatia. 

Having in mind that the population affected by the war conflict is already in need of humanitarian and other aid, HCK is preparing an appeal to help displaced persons and refugees and will promptly release further information in this regard.

ZAGREB, 25 Feb 2022 - Croatian medical organisations on Friday strongly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, expressing solidarity with Ukrainian doctors and people.

The Croatian Medical Chamber, the Croatian Medical Association and the Croatian Medical Union pointed out their readiness to provide humanitarian and medical assistance to Ukrainian refugees and wounded people.

"Croatian doctors today stand firmly with their Ukrainian colleagues and the Ukrainian people," they said, recalling the assistance Ukraine had provided to Croatia during the 1991-1995 Homeland War.