I. Preamble
Ukraine and the Republic of Croatia (hereinafter referred to as “the Participants”, or “Ukraine” and “Croatia”) stand united in their commitment to shared values, inter alia, human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy, and the rule of law.
The Participants share interests in peace, security, stability and prosperity, and they stay determined to upholding the rules-based international order.
Therefore, Ukraine and Croatia reiterate their condemnation, in the strongest possible terms, of the unprovoked, unjustified and illegal ongoing full-scale Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine, which constitutes a blatant violation of international law, including the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris.
In line with the Declaration on Ukraine, adopted by the Croatian Parliament on 25 February 2022, Croatia condemns in the strongest terms Russia's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. Croatia remains unwavering in its commitment to supporting Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, extending to its territorial waters, as well as Ukraine’s inherent right of self-defence against the Russian aggression, as enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter, and Ukraine’s pursuit of a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace.
Croatia’s solidarity with Ukraine is deeply rooted, including for the reason that both Participants can fully comprehend the true national meaning and importance of defending against wars of aggression for territorial gain and subjugation.
Having this in mind, Croatia is uniquely positioned to assist Ukraine with Croatia’s own war-related expertise, particularly in the areas, but not limited to, mine action, veteran care and prosecution of atrocity crimes.
In line with aforementioned mutually shared values, Ukraine and Croatia remain strongly committed to long-term cooperation and support. Croatia has stood by Ukraine since the start of the Russian aggression in 2014, and will continue to do so until Ukraine prevails.
Since February 2022, Croatia has provided, overall, approximately 300 million EUR in economic, financial, humanitarian, development and other assistance to Ukraine. This includes 11 packages of military assistance. Croatia will continue its assistance to Ukraine in accordance with national legislative and constitutional requirements.
The Participants reaffirm that they will further strengthen their cooperation by pursuing bilateral and long-term commitments across a range of areas, including: political, economic and financial; security assistance and cooperation; humanitarian; energy, reconstruction, recovery and development; legal, including ensuring accountability for atrocity crimes committed during Russia’s aggression, science, technology, culture, sports, youth and other areas.
This will contribute to Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself, resist destabilisation efforts, deter acts of aggression in the future, rebuild its economy, protect its citizens, and accelerate its pathway towards a brighter future, including EU and NATO integration and accession.
II. Political, economic and security cooperation and support for Ukraine
Croatia will continue to provide long-term political, security and financial support to Ukraine, as it defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russia’s aggression. Ukraine, for its part, remains strongly committed to the implementation of governance reforms, including transparency, accountability and rule of law reforms.
The future of Ukraine lies firmly within the European family of nations. Ukraine’s security is an integral part of European, Euro-Atlantic and global security. Therefore, Ukraine has the right to choose its own foreign and security policy path, and its own security arrangements, including within NATO.
The Participants will deepen their security cooperation, in accordance with the framework based on bilateral and multilateral mechanisms through sharing intelligence on issues of mutual concern.
Croatia’s commitments to Ukraine seek to complement contributions, and are coordinated with partners, including the EU, NATO and their Member States, in accordance with national legislative and constitutional requirements. Croatia’s commitments also fully reflect the Joint Security Commitments between the EU and Ukraine, signed on 27 June 2024, which Croatia strongly supports.
The Participants will work together, and with international partners, to ensure Ukraine’s capabilities and resilience to defend itself and deter any possible future aggression. Croatia will continue providing military assistance, building on 11 packages of military assistance already adopted since the beginning of Russia's aggression.
To ensure above mentioned objectives, the Participants will hold senior-level Strategic Defence and Security Policy Dialogue, as needed and mutually decided.
Recognising the importance and urgency of the continuous military assistance for Ukraine, Croatia will explore possibilities for further assistance, including through Coalitions within the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.
In order to increase defence readiness, the Participants will encourage cooperation between their defence industries, also building on their war experience. Ukraine’s defence industry could become a powerful asset for Ukraine and Euro-Atlantic security. To that end, the Participants will identify opportunities for joint defence production, including possibilities of joint projects with localisation in Ukraine, with the goal of advancing shared economic interests and strengthening strategic ties.
The Participants will explore opportunities to strengthen bilateral cooperation in digital resilience and cyber security to assist Ukraine in detecting and countering Russian and any other state and non-state actors' malicious cyber activity, in accordance with international law.
Ukraine and Croatia will exchange intelligence, experience and lessons learned in order to develop its cyber security and cyber defence capabilities as well as to enhance its cyber resilience and critical infrastructure protection, including through technical assistance exchanges.
The Participants will cooperate in the area of countering Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, including Russian or any other state-sponsored information manipulation, malign propaganda and disinformation campaigns affecting national security through regular exchange of experience and best practices in countering such threats, strategic communication and public diplomacy.
The Participants reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine’s European aspirations, and in particular towards Ukraine’s full membership in the European Union. The future of Ukraine is in the EU. In this regard, the Participants wholeheartedly welcome the decision by the European Council in December 2023 to open EU accession negotiations with Ukraine, and the convening of the first Intergovernmental Conference in June 2024.
The Participants reaffirm their commitment to work together on Ukraine’s integration in the EU, with Ukraine’s EU membership as the shared final goal, in line with the Joint Declaration on the European Perspective of Ukraine, signed in Kyiv on 8th December 2021 by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković.
Croatia will continue to support Ukraine bilaterally on this path, by sharing its own experience and know-how from its accession period. At the same time, Croatia will continue to support Ukraine within the EU, by working with the EU and the Member States, in assisting Ukraine in its reforms and accession path.
The Participants underscore the merit-based nature of the EU accession process. Croatia commends Ukraine for the successful reform process so far, and acknowledges Ukraine’s efforts to strive for the implementation of necessary reforms even in spite of current extremely challenging circumstances of defending against an armed invasion.
Croatia remains committed to supporting Ukraine, bilaterally and through the EU and its Ukraine Facility, to support Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction, and modernisation reforms in line with its EU accession path.
Croatia will maintain its strong support for the EU’s efforts to support Ukraine’s immediate and long-term security and resilience, including through the predictable, efficient and sustainable provision of military and civilian assistance, particularly through the European Peace Facility and the EU Advisory Mission for Civilian Security Sector Reform Ukraine; humanitarian, financial, trade and economic support; hosting of displaced people; support to reforms, recovery and reconstruction; as well as restrictive measures, support to accountability mechanisms, diplomatic support and global outreach.
Croatia will also continue supporting the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes, as one of the important lifelines for the Ukrainian economy, and a key for global food security.
Given the importance of Ukrainian grain for global food security, as well as the importance of grain export for Ukrainian economy, Croatia will explore the possibilities to support the humanitarian food programme “Grain from Ukraine” to secure grain for those countries that face acute food shortages.
The Participants recognise the value of sanctions in restricting the Russian Federation's and other aggressor-states' access to the finance, goods, technology and services it is utilising in its aggression and to deter future attacks.
The Participants emphasise the importance of continued readiness to maintain, and to impose new restrictive measures to uphold pressure against Russia, as well as full and effective implementation of existing sanctions. Croatia implements fully the existing EU sanctions regimes against Russia, Belarus, and all other actors undermining the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
The Participants will continue to work to ensure that the costs to Russia of its aggression continue to rise, including through sanctions and export controls. Croatia will also continue cooperation with partners to tackle all forms of sanctions circumvention.
The Participants will provide each other with up-to-date appropriate information on the grounds for sanctions and other relevant information, in compliance with relevant obligations and national laws.
The Participants warmly welcome, and strongly support, that NATO Washington Summit in July 2024 reaffirmed the notion that Ukraine’s future is in NATO. Croatia, as a NATO Member, will continue to support Ukraine’s irreversible path to full NATO membership, including through increased NATO-Ukraine defence and military interoperability and ever-closer political alignment. Building on a donated national contribution to NATO’s Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine, Croatia will continue its support to Ukraine through NATO’s financial Pledge of Long-Term Security Assistance for Ukraine.
The Participants fully support the outcomes of the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held in Switzerland in June 2024. The path to a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine can only be based on international law, including the UN Charter, and full respect for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia must stop, and in the future refrain from the use or threat of use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.
Croatia commits to continue its diplomatic efforts, bilaterally with third countries as well as in the multilateral fora, to promote the implementation of Ukraine’s Peace Formula and its principles, and will remain engaged on points of Ukraine’s Peace Formula, including at the level of national security and foreign policy advisors, ambassadors in Ukraine and relevant experts.
The Participants reaffirm that achieving peace requires the involvement of, and dialogue between all parties. In this context, Croatia’s successful peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium could serve as a valuable model to draw experiences from. Croatia stands ready to continue sharing its own expertise with Ukraine in this area.
The Participants reaffirm the outcomes of the First Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform, in Zagreb in October 2022, as well as the aims of the Third Ukraine-South East Europe Summit, in Dubrovnik, in October 2024. Croatia remains firmly dedicated to continue supporting Ukraine, in these and all other regional and international political and diplomatic fora, engagements and efforts.
Croatia joined the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children and will continue to support Ukrainian vulnerable children, through rehabilitation programmes and mine risk education programmes.
III. Humanitarian, energy, development, legal, science and other areas of cooperation and support for Ukraine
Croatia reaffirms its commitment to maintaining its humanitarian; energy, reconstruction, recovery and development; legal, including ensuring accountability; science, technology, youth and other areas of support to, and cooperation with, Ukraine. Croatia’s support will remain steadfast, durable and long-term in nature.
In solidarity with Ukraine, Croatia continues to provide emergency and humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine. To date, over 28,000 people from Ukraine who fled from Russian aggression have applied for temporary protection and have been welcomed in Croatia since February 2022. Croatia also provides, and it will continue to do so, the rehabilitation for the Ukrainian victims of the Russian aggression, including the most vulnerable veteran populations and war affected children.
Based on its experience stemming from the Homeland War, Croatia remains fully aware that humanitarian demining is a crucial precondition for overall socioeconomic recovery of the war affected areas. With this in mind, the Participants recall with utmost appreciation and reaffirm the outcomes of the International Donor Conference on Humanitarian Demining in Ukraine, held in Zagreb in October 2023. At the event, 34 participating countries stated a clear political support to mine action in Ukraine, with nearly half a billion EUR of pledges, including additional 5 million EUR on behalf of Croatia. This financial contribution follows previous forms of Croatian assistance in the area of demining. Overall, Croatia’s financial support to demining in Ukraine so far amounts to more than 10 million EUR. Croatia will continue to provide equipment, expertise, share of experience, training and financial support to demining in Ukraine.
The Participants condemn, in the strongest terms, widespread, consistent and deliberate Russia’s armed attacks on Ukrainian cities and other civilian infrastructure, including energy infrastructure. Ukrainian power stations and energy grid continue to suffer massive damage as a result of these brutal Russia’s attacks. In this regard, Croatia will continue to provide its technical and financial assistance to Ukraine to rebuild and reinforce its energy infrastructure.
Following in the footsteps of successful projects implemented so far, such as renovating a kindergarten in Hostomel, Croatia will continue to provide its assistance in the area of reconstruction of vital social infrastructure.
Croatia will continue assisting Ukraine in the area of reconstruction and recovery, by sharing its own experience, know-how and capabilities. Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development is ready to consider participation in the EU’s Ukraine Facility given its role and interest by Croatian entrepreneurs. As the OECD acceding country, Croatia warmly welcomes that the OECD recognized Ukraine as a prospective OECD member in 2022, and the opening of the OECD office in Kyiv in 2023. Croatia also strongly supports the establishment of the OECD Country Programme for Ukraine, to which Croatia allocated a voluntary contribution of 250.000 EUR.
The Participants reaffirm that the fight against impunity has no alternative since there can be no lasting peace in Ukraine without justice and accountability. The Participants will seek to hold to account those responsible for war crimes and other international crimes, committed in or against Ukraine in the context of Russia's war of aggression, consistent with international law. The Participants will continue to support the work of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the International Criminal Court to ensure that alleged international crimes are fully and fairly investigated through independent, effective and robust legal mechanisms.
Croatia will continue to actively participate in the Core Group on options for the establishment of a tribunal on the crime of aggression against Ukraine, as well as the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group. Croatia will continue sharing its expertise related to the prosecution of war crimes regularly with Ukraine, including through Workshops on War Crimes Investigation and Prosecution. The Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation of the Republic of Croatia, signed in Kyiv on 11th September 2024, will further strengthen the joint cooperation in this area.
The Participants reaffirm their commitment to holding the Russian Federation accountable for causing damage, loss and injury to individuals and entities, as well as to the state of Ukraine, as a result of its internationally wrongful acts in Ukraine or against Ukraine, including its aggression in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which will also help deter future attacks and support Ukraine's recovery.
Croatia, working with its partners, will continue to explore all lawful routes consistent with applicable contractual obligations and in accordance with EU and international law through which Russian assets could be used to support Ukraine.
As a priority, the Participants will continue to work together, along with G7 states and others, towards the establishment of the international compensation mechanism to provide compensation for damage, loss or injury caused by Russia's aggression, as envisaged by the Statute of the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine adopted by the Resolution of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe CM/Res(2023)3. In this regard, the Participants will explore appropriate options for the financing of the international compensation mechanism to provide prompt and adequate compensation to victims of aggression.
The Participants commit to maintain and step up its cooperation as regards to science and technology, including through the Program of Cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in the fields of science and technology and the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth of the Republic of Croatia, signed in Kyiv on 11th September 2024.
Empowered and educated youth has a crucial role in Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery, especially with regard to strengthening democratic values, fostering entrepreneurship and accelerating Ukraine’s long-term prosperity.
The Participants reaffirm the continued importance of engagement with civil society. This includes, but it will not be limited to, social rehabilitation of Ukrainian war veterans; education on mine safety for Ukrainian children; and transfer of knowledge and expertise in mine risk education for the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior.
Already more than 500 Ukrainian children from war-affected areas spent their summer and winter holidays in Croatia and received valuable education about mine safety. This endeavour will continue.
Croatia remains unwavering in maintaining and, if necessary and the Participants decide, stepping up its overall political, economic, security, humanitarian and other assistance to and support for Ukraine in the future.
IV. Final Provisions
This Agreement is an international legal instrument, which does not require ratification in the national parliaments of the Participants.
The Participants will implement this Agreement in accordance with the national legislation of the Participants, budgetary appropriations and international legal obligations, including Croatia’s obligations as an EU Member State.
The Participants will, if necessary, designate authorised bodies for the development and implementation of bilateral arrangements in accordance with the areas of cooperation specified in this Agreement.
This Agreement will remain in effect for 10 years from the date of its signature.
In the event that Ukraine becomes a member of NATO before the expiration of this Agreement, the Participants will decide on its future status.
The authorised bodies of the Participants may conclude executive and technical arrangements on specific areas of cooperation within the framework of the implementation of this Agreement, or supplementary to this Agreement.
The Working Group for Cooperation between Ukraine and the Republic of Croatia, established in 2016, remains the main institutional framework for the development of the Participants’ bilateral relations.
This framework will continue to be used for the transfer of Croatia’s expertise and experience in post-conflict transition and rehabilitation, including mine action, the transfer of Croatian knowledge and experience gained in the EU accession process and will be also used for strengthening of economic, cultural and scientific relations.
This Agreement may be terminated by either Participant at any time by written notice to the other Participant. The Agreement will terminate six months from the date of receipt of such notice. The termination will not affect the implementation of ongoing activities or projects, which have been decided prior to the date of its termination, unless the Participants decide otherwise.
This Agreement may be amended and supplemented, including by adding annexes thereto, by mutual consent of the Participants, which will be made in writing.
Any difference in the interpretation or application of this Agreement will be settled amicably through direct consultations between the Participants.
This Agreement will come into effect on the date of signature.
Signed in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 9 October 2024 in two originals in the Ukrainian, Croatian and English languages, all texts being equally valid. In case of any discrepancy in the interpretation, the English text will prevail.
For Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President
For the Republic of Croatia: Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister