"The assessments you made today, including of the tragic events in Ukraine, totally coincide with mine. That is true. What happened in Serbia and what is happening now between Russia and Ukraine — glorification and putting fascist elements of the past on a pedestal, giving them new life in the present day — these are all very similar phenomena, very similar," Putin said.
The Serbian film director, for his part, thanked the Russian leader for "personal historical justice," stating that it had always been a characteristic of the Slavic people.
"What is happening now in Ukraine is a struggle for us. We saw what happened to [Ukrainian nationalist Stepan] Bandera's followers in Croatia when they kicked out 230,000 Serbs. I think this analogy is very important for everyone," Kusturica added.
Serbian authorities estimate that around 2,000 Serbs were killed and over 200,000 expelled from Croatia as a result of the 1995 military-police Operation Storm against the Republic of Serbian Krajina. In August 2022, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said the operation had allegedly contributed to further peaceful reintegration of the territories. He has also on many occasions expressed his readiness to share Croatia's experience of the past conflict in the former Yugoslavia with Ukraine's current authorities.