The Office of Serbian member of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik informed the Embassy of Ukraine in Bosnia and Herzegovina that the icon of St. Nicholas, which the politician presented to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, was allegedly "in possession of a family from Republika Srpska" and is a "family icon".
This was stated by the speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Nikolenko in a comment to Evropeyska Pravda.
"However, no supporting documents were provided on the legality of the icon's movement to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, the question of the true circumstances of the artifact's entry into Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ways of acquiring its ownership remains open," the speaker said in a comment.
He added that the Ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Police and cultural institutions, continue to establish the circumstances and time of the icon's movement from the territory of Ukraine and those involved, involving the capabilities of Interpol.
"Ukraine has asked Bosnia and Herzegovina to hand over the icon to it for detailed examinations immediately. The Ukrainian side also expressed its readiness to cooperate with the Bosnian-Herzegovina investigative authorities to clarify all the circumstances related to the removal of the icon from the territory of our state. Bosnia and Herzegovina's full openness on this issue would confirm its true political will to develop friendly relations with Ukraine, respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
A few days ago, the former head of the Association of Veterans of the Republika Srpska Army said that the icon that Milorad Dodik presented to Lavrov was taken out of the occupied Donbas in 2018 and transported via Russia and Serbia. This contradicts the statement of counsellor Dodin, voiced in a TV interview, that the icon has belonged to a family from Banya Luka for the last 15 years.