Serbia Won’t Supply Weapons to Ukraine — Vucic

Czech President Milos Zeman said Serbia’s refusal to join Western sanctions on Russia was its advantage

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic

BELGRADE, January 30. /TASS/. Serbia is not supplying weapons to Ukraine and has no plans to do this in the future, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday.

"Serbia’s specialized industry will have a lot of new investment and also undergo many changes so they can make money and sell their weapons. We don’t sell weapons to Russia and Ukraine, but we will sell it to anyone else," Vucic said at a joint news conference with Czech President Milos Zeman.

Czech President Milos Zeman said Serbia’s refusal to join Western sanctions on Russia was its advantage.

"Of course, I understand Serbia’s position and understand its neutrality," he said at the same news conference. "The position of neutrality held by Serbia, which doesn’t support sanctions on Russia, could be a sort of an advantage for the possible role of a mediator because a mediator shouldn’t clearly take either side, or it would be unable to be a mediator."

The Serbian leader said earlier that Russia's special military operation in Ukraine prompted enormous Western pressure on Serbia, including with respect to the issue of anti-Russian sanctions. Vucic has repeatedly said that if Serbia joined the sanctions policy directed against Russia, that wouldn’t bring any results. The Serbian leader told news media in an interview in November 2022 that Belgrade would impose sanctions against Moscow "only with the sword of Damocles over its head."

After the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, Vucic said in an address to the nation, following a meeting of the Security Council, that Serbia supported the territorial integrity of Ukraine, but wouldn’t impose sanctions on Russia. The president said that the republic was temporarily suspending army and police exercises with all foreign partners. He said that Serbia considers Russia and Ukraine fraternal states, regrets what is happening in the east of Europe, and is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to Kiev.

Hungary, Austria not to ship weapons to Ukraine, Defense Ministers confirm

Klaudia Tanner said that she considers the Ukrainian conflict spilling into Europe the greatest danger

BUDAPEST, January 30. /TASS/. Hungary and Austria will not send weapons to Ukraine and would like to prevent the escalation of the ongoing conflict, Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said after the talks with his Austrian counterpart Klaudia Tanner in Budapest Monday.

"Hungary’s position is clear: we do not ship weapons to the area of conflict, because we want to avoid its escalation, and our position coincides with Austria’s position," Szalay-Bobrovniczky said, noting that the two ministers discussed the situation in Ukraine. "The neutral Austria also does not ship weapons to where hostilities take place."

Meanwhile, Tanner said that she considers the Ukrainian conflict spilling into Europe the greatest danger.

"We are not talking about conventional war alone, but also about non-traditional threats, such as growth of migration, exacerbated by the war," she said, according to the MTI news agency.