There are currently 135 Croatian male and six female soldiers in Kosovo as part of the KFOR mission, which is the largest Croatian mission after Afghanistan.
The Camp Villaggio Italia is in charge of security in western Kosovo. It is under Italian command, and Croatian soldiers, about a hundred of them, are among the most numerous in the camp, which is the size of 85 football fields and where they are placed together with the Italian, Austrian and Slovenian contingents.
Soldiers are rotated every six months, and most of them are from Slavonia, especially after on 25 November a company from the 1st mechanised battalion 'Sokolovi' (Falcons) arrived in Kosovo. Croatian soldiers at Camp Villaggio Italia are accommodated in two residential buildings. The rooms can accommodate four soldiers, and each facility has a common living room.
For Colonel Krešimir Tušek, the commander of the 36th Croatian contingent in KFOR, this is the third Christmas he will spend outside Croatia in a military base. The first two times he was at a military base in Kabul.
"This isn't my first time, it's a little harder. Of course, you miss your family, children, loved ones, but we are soldiers," he told Hina.
He underscored that Milanović's visit caused great excitement and was a big deal for the stationed soldiers.
President Milanović first met with the camp commander, Colonel Andrea Bertazza, after which Croatian, Italian, Slovenian, Austrian, North Macedonian and Moldavian soldiers presented the weapons and military equipment they use.
At the end of the visit, the president said that the situation at the camp was "excellent" and that it was "good to see this to make sure all of it makes sense".