"There is no difference between "For the House – Ready" and "Glory to Ukraine". These are the greetings of the most radical chauvinists of Western Ukraine, who collaborated with the Nazis and killed thousands of Poles, Jews... This is a fact," said the Croatian president, quoted by HRT.
Milanovic compared the Ukrainian slogan to a German Nazi salute and said he did not want to hear it on Croatian territory.
He stressed that some Western leaders, especially in Canada, use the Ukrainian nationalist slogan because of their illiteracy.
In early January, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova recalled that the slogan "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!" was used by collaborators during the Second World War, when they "saluted the Wehrmacht and SS units."
She added that the collaborators accepted this greeting "not just for their internal use, but for their identification before Hitler's SS."