Ukrainian icon presented to Lavrov in Bosnia estimated at EUR 12.5 mln

Collage from Facebook / Balkan Observer for Ukraine

A 300-year-old Ukrainian icon, originally from the occupied city of Luhansk, which has earlier been handed as a gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is estimated at EUR 12.5 million.

The icon was kept in the Banke Srpske deposit until its bankruptcy, and later was deposited with the Lithuanian-owned UKIO bank. It is not known when and how the icon got into the Bosnian bank, as reported by Balkan Observer for Ukraine on Facebook with reference to the Bosnian BN TV channel.

Read alsoUkraine demands from Bosnia return of relic icon – FM KulebaBackground

• The Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, presented a Ukrainian icon to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. After that, the Ukrainian Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina demanded an explanation from that country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as to how the icon had appeared in the country in the first place.
• Subsequently, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that they would return the icon to the side that had presented it so that its history could be traced through Interpol.
• According to local media reports, the icon is almost 300 years old and was stored in the Ukrainian city of Luhansk, which is now occupied by Russian-controlled forces.
• The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy intends to appeal to law enforcement agencies with a request to establish a chain of the icon's movement from Ukraine to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• The prosecutor's office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has opened a respective criminal case.