Croatia transferred all of its Mi-8 helicopters to Ukraine

A meeting between the Minister of Defense of Croatia, Mario Banožić, and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, took place at the Pentagon.

"We appreciate Croatia's steadfast commitment to help Ukraine, and we can see that in your numerous military equipment donations, including all of your Mi-8 helicopters," stated Austin.

Austin also noted that Croatia has made significant progress over the past 30 years, overcoming the consequences of the 1990s war. He said that this progress required hard work and thoughtful policies, as well as a willingness to put differences aside and look towards the future.

"Your personal leadership, most visible in joint efforts to assist Ukraine, has defense on Russia's aggression, represent our ability of building a better role for us and our nation for generations to come. The Croatian people and our government understand this and we are committed to the part for as long as it takes," said Banožić.

Earlier, we reported that Croatia had planned to transfer 14 transport helicopters to Ukraine in March. Currently, twelve Mi-8MTV-1 helicopters and two Mi-8T helicopters have been withdrawn from the Croatian Armed Forces inventory.

Back in November of the previous year, it was announced that the Ministry of Defense of Croatia had approved the transfer of 14 Mi-8 and Mi-8 MTV helicopters to Ukraine.

In January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone conversation with then-Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković. During the negotiations, they reached specific agreements on strengthening Ukraine.

The Croatian government made the decision to provide 1 million euros to the UNICEF program for urgently equipping Ukrainian schools and hospitals with generators.