Ljubljana, 31 March 2022 - Slovenia's charge d'affaires at the embassy in Kyiv Boštjan Lesjak, who arrived in Kyiv on Sunday, had to take down the Slovenian flag in front of the embassy because it looks too similar to Russia's flag.
"When we arrived in Kyiv it was quite windy and when we proudly hoisted back the Slovenian and European flag, they fluttered nicely in the wind," he told TV Slovenija late on Wednesday.
But when the wind stopped, the flags dropped and members of the national guard and later the police came and asked whether the Slovenian flag can be removed temporarily "because it is too much like the Russian flag," he said.
Lesjak said safety was well taken care of otherwise by the official representatives of the Ukrainian authorities. "We are accommodated in a nearby hotel, where we have the basic conditions to live and work," he said.
Lesjak regularly reports to Slovenian Ambassador Tomaž Mencin, who works out of the Polish city of Rzeszow close to the border with Ukraine.
His main contacts are the ambassadors of Poland and the Holy See, who never left Kyiv.
Slovenia reopened the embassy in Kyiv as a sign of support for Ukraine. Lesjak, a lieutenant colonel who previously worked at the Defence Ministry, volunteered for the job.
