The Ukrainians write that Milanović is a friend of Russia, the Russians that he is against the "special operation"

Today, the Ukrainian media are reporting on the overwhelming victory and re-election of the "friend of Russia" Zoran Milanović on Sunday in the presidential elections in Croatia, while the media in Moscow write that a politician who condemned Russia's "special military operation" and Western sanctions against Russia was elected.

"The current president, Zoran Milanović, a friend of Russia, has been re-elected as the president of Croatia," is the headline on the Kiev independent portal.

That Ukrainian media writes that Milanović is a critic of Western aid to Ukraine and its accession to NATO, and that he spoke of the Euromaidan protests in 2014 as a coup, Hina agency reports.

The portal adds that Milanović opposed the sending of Croatian soldiers to the NATO aid mission to Ukraine, NSATU, in October.

The Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform covered the elections in Croatia with a terse, factual text, but it carried an article from the Politico portal, which claims that pro-Russian bots on social networks were conducting a disinformation campaign in favor of Milanović.

The Russian news agency TASS cites only statistical data about Milanović's victory, while the RIA Novosti agency writes that the Croatian president "condemned the special military operation" and publicly complained about the ineffectiveness of Western sanctions against Russia.

The RIA Novosti agency writes that Milanović opposed the involvement of Croatian soldiers in the conflict in Ukraine, but that despite this, the Croatian government gave Ukraine "300 million dollars and continues to help" and that Croatia launched a state program for the reception and employment of Ukrainian refugees.

That agency writes that, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Croatian mercenaries are also fighting on the side of the Ukrainian forces. It is also recalled that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković called Milanović "Putin's poodle", while the Government of Croatia "supported anti-Russian sanctions, closed the JANAF oil pipeline to Serbia and expelled almost all Russian diplomats".