Doris Pack: Putin wants to restore the Soviet Union

Doris Pack, the veteran German politician, downplayed fears over Russia's war in Ukraine spilling over into south-eastern Europe in an exclusive interview for HRT broadcast on Monday.

The former chairwoman of the European Parliament's Delegation for South-Eastern Europe was a strong proponent of Croatia joining the EU. 

On the topic of Ukraine, she drew a parallel between the war there and Croatia's Homeland War.

"Putin wants to restore the Soviet Union, he wants to destroy the national identity of Ukraine. If we look back at the rupture of Yugoslavia that was also the Serbian idea, Milošević's idea, to keep Croatia and Serbia together, Yugoslavia together, and therefore it was a territorial question, like in Ukraine as well. But also a little bit a national question," Pak told HRT's reporter Gordan Žvanović.

Pack also said that she does not fear that the war in Ukraine could spread to Southeastern Europe.

“No, because we are united. We were not united in the 1990s, we were not interested then. Now, we know that we are on the side of the countries in Southeastern Europe. Most of them are already in NATO and I hope the rest will join,” said Pack.

Pack was in Zagreb to receive an honorary doctorate from Vern University.