Ukrainian Ambassador Says Icon Gifted To Lavrov In Bosnia Must Be Returned To Ukraine

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th December, 2020) The icon gifted to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina must be returned to Ukraine, the Ukrainian ambassador in the Balkan country, Vasyl Kyrylych, has said, after Moscow handed the present back to Sarajevo amid rumors around its origin.

Last week, the Bosnian presidency's current chairman, Milorad Dodik, presented Lavrov with an Orthodox icon. The gift sparked a controversy after Bosnian media alleged that the icon was over 300 years old and could have been smuggled out of Luhansk, a breakaway region in Ukraine's east. The Ukrainian embassy in Sarajevo sent a note to the Bosnian foreign ministry, with demands to clarify the icon's origin. On Wednesday, Russia returned the gift, recommending a probe into its origin.

Dodik's office denies that the icon was stolen.

"The absence of a response [from Bosnia] or a delay of it gives grounds to deem the icon's relocation to Bosnia and Herzegovina illegal. This is a principled question, and an answer to it should be quick and unambiguous, not the media one, but official. And if the first step has already been taken, i.e. the icon has been returned to Sarajevo, they should take the second step and return it to Ukraine," Kyrylych told Ukrayinska Pravda.

Most recently, on Thursday, Dodik's adviser, Radovan Kovacevic, said that the icon has been a part of a home collection for over 15 years and does not have any significant material worth other than sentimental value. The official noted that the icon is "certainly" absent from Interpol's database on stolen works of art.