"Financial Times"published estimates that Serbia indirectly, through other countries, from the beginning Russian invasions to Kiev exported to Ukraine ammunition worth 800 million euros.
Estimates shared with the "Financial Times" show that Serbia is discreetly increasing ammunition sales to the West by strengthening Ukraine's defenses, although it is only one of two European countries that have not joined the Western sanctions against Russia.
Vučić confirmed that the information about the value of the ammunition is mostly correct, presenting the sale as a business opportunity, the paper claims.
"This is part of our economic revival and important to us." Yes, we export our ammunition. We cannot export to Ukraine or Russia, but we have many contracts with Americans, Spaniards, Czechs, others. What they do with it is ultimately their job," said Vučić, the newspaper reports.
He even added that he knows where the shells go, but that it is not his job.
"My job is to ensure that we do business with our ammunition legally, that we sell it. We have to take care of our people, and that's it. That's all I can say. We have friends in Kiev and Moscow. These are our Slovenian brothers," said Vučić.
When asked if the figure is approximately correct, he said that it is about earnings achieved over a period of two or three years, not one.
Vučić resisted Western pressure to adopt a sanctions regime against Russia and allowed Russian flights to continue, although he says he is committed to his country becoming a member of the EU, the newspaper recalls.
"Europe and the US have been working for years to distance Vučić from Putin," a Western diplomat told the Financial Times, adding that the key player is American Ambassador Christopher Hill, who arrived in Belgrade a month after the start of the Russian invasion.
Vučić said that Serbia has a golden opportunity because its weapons are cheaper than in the West and added that the volume of total Serbian ammunition exports could increase.
According to diplomats and analysts, Serbia's participation in ammunition traffic to Ukraine is sufficiently hidden that official data does not reflect it. The Kiel Institute for World Economics, which monitors support for Ukraine, has not directly monitored Serbia's activities and has not come across systematic evidence of Belgrade's contribution, said Christoph Trebesch, who heads that effort, writes the Financial Times.
Serbs love Russians, but Ukrainians need grenades
Let's remind the increased volume of sales of Serbian ammunition to Ukraine was discussed a few months ago, after the last meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelenski publicly thanked Belgrade for its support of sovereignty and integrity, humanitarian aid and the reception of Ukrainian refugees.
Vučić also had nice words. In his "address" to the RTS camera, he was surprised that the Serbs have something against Ukraine, even though they are "our Slavic brothers" just like the Russians.
Upon Zelenskiy's call for Serbia and the neighborhood to work on the production of ammunition together with the Ukrainians, Vučić informed his Ukrainian colleague that Serbian ammunition warehouses were 62 percent full and that he "ordered" them to be filled to the brim.
It didn't take long for the lights to turn on - it's an open secret that Serbian grenades end up in the Ukrainian arsenal and hit the Russian army. Does Vučić thereby buy the support of the West and the favor of Zelenski?
Because, at the official level, Serbian support for Ukraine remained vague, at least from the point of view of what the West and Kiev expect.
Thus, in Tirana, Vučić signed a declaration condemning Russian "aggression" as the "greatest threat" to international peace, calling for even stronger support for Ukraine and underlining that Kyiv has the right to join NATO.
It even provides support for international investigations against the "criminals" who lead the aggression - although Russian President Vladimir Putin is not mentioned by name, everyone knows that he is also in the picture.
Thus, even after the last meeting between Vučić and Zelenski in Tirana, texts appeared on the front pages of the Belgrade tabloid press in which Vučić ostensibly bravely defended the Serbian cause by asking that the text of the declaration not include an invitation for everyone to join the sanctions.
Also, again at Vučić's insistence, the phrase about the "malign influence" of Russia was replaced by the phrase about "false narratives" about the war.
Thus, at least in the Serbian mainstream, the image of "neutrality" has been preserved.
Source: RFE / DW
