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Serbian President denies selling military gear to Ukraine
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied on Thursday that his country had sold weapons or ammunition to either Ukraine or Russia. This statement comes after a classified Pentagon document was leaked, which stated that Serbia had agreed to supply arms to Ukraine, which is fighting against Russian aggression, or had already done.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied on Thursday that his country had sold weapons or ammunition to either Ukraine or Russia. This statement comes after a classified Pentagon document was leaked, which stated that Serbia had agreed to supply arms to Ukraine, which is fighting against Russian aggression, or had already done.
The Serbian President dismissed the claim, stating that Serbia “has not and will not export weapons to Ukraine,” and “has not and will not” export arms or ammunition to Russia, despite the fact that Serbian ammunition may have reached the battlefield through third-party countries.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Serbian President Denies Sales of Military Equipment to Ukraine <a href="https://t.co/WmDzItMGZH">https://t.co/WmDzItMGZH</a></p>— New Delhi Times (@NewDelhiTimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/NewDelhiTimes/status/1646793187720146945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Serbia, which inherited most of the former Yugoslavia’s military and industrial facilities, has made billions of dollars from weapons exports, and Vucic stated that the Balkan country will continue to invest in its defense facilities. Vucic was “quite certain” that Serbian ammunition would appear “on one side or the other in the battlefield” in Ukraine, after having been exported to Turkey, Spain, or the Czech Republic.
The contents of the leaked document were also denied as false by Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic. The document, which was entitled “Europe | Response to Ongoing Russia-Ukraine Conflict,” indicated that Serbia had rejected Ukraine’s request for military training but had either sent or agreed to provide lethal aid. The document further indicated that Serbia had the political willingness and military capability to provide weapons to Ukraine in the future.
Despite Serbia’s condemnation of Russia’s invasion at international forums such as the United Nations, it has chosen not to participate in the Western sanctions against Moscow. Additionally, Serbia acknowledges Ukraine as a sovereign state in its entirety, while Kyiv does not acknowledge the independence of Kosovo, which was a predominantly ethnic Albanian southern province of Serbia.
The leaked documents’ authenticity has not been independently verified by Reuters, who reported on the story. The classified documents were among dozens posted online in recent weeks in what could be the most serious leak of U.S. secrets in years.
