KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th December, 2020) Ukraine has asked Bosnia and Herzegovina to give back an Eastern Orthodox icon gifted to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when he visited Sarajevo last week, a Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said on Tuesday, amid speculation that it might have been smuggled out of a conflict zone in Donbas.
The Russian Foreign Ministry handed over what is suspected to be a 300-year-old artifact from eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Region to the Bosnian embassy in Moscow on Wednesday, after the gift prompted protest from Ukraine.
"Ukraine has contacted Bosnia and Herzegovina, asking it to immediately give back the icon for a detailed examination. Ukraine said it was ready to work with Bosnian investigators to clarify how the icon was moved out of the country," Oleg Nikolenko, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, was quoted as saying by the Unian news agency.
An adviser for Milorad Dodik, the Serb member in Bosnia's three-man presidency, explained that the icon of St. Nicholas was a Serbian family's treasure and had no historical value. Nikolenko said it had no certificate to prove that claim. Ukraine has asked the international criminal police, Interpol, to help it identify the icon's origin.
