Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on the 15th of July that the country would continue to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but did not sign a joint call by regional countries to provide security support to Kyiv and continue to put pressure on Russia, Reuters reports.
Vučić met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before making the statement and participated in a Southeast Europe-Ukraine summit. This was the first visit by a Serbian leader to Kyiv in more than a decade, but Vučić attended the summit in Odessa last year.
Belgrade has historically had good relations with Moscow, and has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia, but has repeatedly condemned Moscow’s policy at the UN and expressed support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Vučić has also met with Zelensky several times.
After the summit, the Serbian leader announced his commitment to provide Ukraine with more financial, medical and energy assistance, including assistance in rebuilding a city he did not name. Vučić told reporters that good results had been achieved and that the Serbs would do everything in their power to improve the lives of the city’s residents.
However, Vučić also noted that he had refused to sign a joint declaration calling for increased pressure on Russia
and expanded political, military, financial and security support for Ukraine. Serbia has applied to join the European Union, but Russia remains its largest gas supplier, and the state oil company NIS, which is on the US sanctions list, is mainly owned by Gazprom Neft and Gazprom.
The Serbian president said the country would continue to support Ukraine’s EU path, adding that Ukraine, Moldova and all others could count on Serbian support.
Belgrade fully recognizes Ukraine as indivisible, including the territories seized by Russia since 2014, while Kyiv has not recognized Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.
Serbia has donated about 60 million euros in humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Moscow has repeatedly accused the Serbs of selling weapons to Ukraine through intermediaries. Belgrade has denied selling the weapons to the Ukrainians, stating that they were purchased by other buyers around the world.
In early July, a conference of EU candidate countries was held in Belgrade, during which the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, accused Moscow of aggression and humiliation of Serbs, Ukrainians, Moldovans and Georgians. In response to these statements, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized Belgrade for failing to respond to anti-Russian statements.
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