site.btaRussia Again Accuses Serbia of Supplying Arms to Ukraine, President Vucic Says Ammunition Exports Have Been Halted

After Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) first accused Serbia in late May of covertly exporting military products to Ukraine, the SVR Monday said that this practice had not stopped and supplies to Ukraine's armed forces were increasing.

A statement from SVR’s press centre, quoted by TASS, says that these shipments are being facilitated primarily through intermediaries. According to the report, the Ukrainian military "is very grateful to Serbian manufacturers of weapons and ammunition for their contribution to maintaining the combat readiness of the Ukrainian armed forces." 

"Common faith united the Serbian and Russian peoples for many centuries and raised them to fight together against our enemies. It is regrettable that now these traditions of friendship and mutual assistance are being abandoned for the sake of greed and cowardly, opportunistic policies,” the statement said. 

According to the SVR, ammunition produced at Serbian defense enterprises, mainly for heavy long-range systems, "is sent in the interests of Ukraine to NATO countries in the form of complete sets of parts for assembly.”

This allows Kyiv to formally receive at a later time not Serbian military products, but those assembled at the weapons factories in Western countries," the report says.

Ammunition is assembled and equipped primarily in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, the report adds.

"Manufacturers in Serbia are well aware of the real consumers of their products and the fact that their missiles and shells will kill Russian military personnel and residents of Russian settlements," the SVR said.

In response, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that all ammunition exports had been halted.

"So now we are not exporting anything. We have halted all exports. Any further export must be based on special and specific decisions,” Vucic said. “Now ammunition only goes to our barracks and stockpiles," he noted.

In late May, Vucic said that he had previously discussed the issue of Serbian military exports to Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin, both in person and via his delegation.

On Monday, Vucic noted that hundreds of thousands of people depend directly or indirectly on these exports for their livelihoods.