KYIV/BELGRADE, July 15 (Reuters) – Serbia will send Ukraine more humanitarian aid but did not sign up to a regional call for continued security support for the country and more pressure on Russia, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday in Kyiv.
Vucic earlier met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and took part in the regional Southeastern Europe-Ukraine summit. It was the first visit of a Serbian leader to the Ukrainian capital in over a decade, but Vucic’s second visit to Ukraine after he took part in the same summit in the Black Sea port of Odesa last year.
Belgrade, which has a history of close ties with Moscow, has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but has repeatedly condemned Moscow’s policies in the United Nations and expressed support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Vucic has also met Zelenskiy on several occasions.
VUCIC FACES ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS
After the summit, the longtime Serbian leader, who is considering early elections as he navigates more than a year of anti-government protests, pledged more financial, medical, and energy aid to Ukraine, including help to rebuild an unspecified town.
“So far we have not made good progress, and we will do our best … to achieve the best results for the Ukrainian people in that town,” Vucic told Serbian reporters.
Vucic said he refused to sign the summit’s joint declaration, which calls for the continuation of political, military, financial, and security support to Ukraine and strengthening pressure on Russia.
Serbia has applied to join the European Union, but Russia remains its biggest gas supplier, and the country’s U.S.-sanctioned NIS oil firm (NIIS.BEL) is majority-owned by Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM), and Gazprom (GAZP.MM).
Vucic said Serbia will remain a supporter of Ukraine’s EU bid. “Ukraine, Moldova, and all others … can always count on Serbia’s support,” he said, referring to another former Soviet republic now led by a pro-EU government.
Belgrade recognises Ukraine in its entirety, including territories seized by Russia since 2014, while Kyiv refused to recognise the 2008 independence of Kosovo, Serbia’s predominantly Albanian former southern province.
Serbia, a country of 6.5 million people, donated around 60 million euros in non-lethal and non-military aid to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.
Moscow has accused Belgrade several times of selling ammunition to Ukraine via intermediaries. Belgrade has denied it ever supplied ammunition to Ukraine but has said it has sold to other buyers worldwide.
Vucic’s visit also comes after a conference of EU candidate countries in the Serbian capital Belgrade last week. During the event, Ukraine’s parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk accused Moscow of aggression and of “humiliating” Serbs, Ukrainians, Moldovans and Georgians.
On Saturday, Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, criticised Belgrade over failing to respond to “the hostile anti-Russia remarks” made by Stefanchuk.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka, Aleksandar Vasovic; writing by Olena Harmash; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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