Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba issued a statement saying that his country is still seeking the return of an Orthodox relic, an icon, that the B&H Presidency Chairman Milorad Dodik gave as a gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his recent visit to B&H.

Kuleba said on his official Twitter account, reacting to Dodik's statements yesterday after leaving the hospital where he allegedly received treatment for coronavirus infection, that the Ukrainian icon "burned the fingers of cynical Russian diplomats who now renounce it".

-But, Mr. Dodik continues to lie, surpassing even his old friends. Ukraine is still demanding the return of the relic- Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

Among other things, Dodik stated yesterday that "the Ukrainian authorities were not even requesting the icon", that it was in a safe place and that the affair was "fabricated by the media from the Federation of B&H."

The gold plated icon that Dodik gave to Lavrov during his visit to B&H on December 14th has a seal that testifies to the fact that it was owned by Soviet Ukraine. It is suspected that it was taken out of Luhansk, a city in eastern Ukraine that has been under the control of pro-Russian forces since 2014.