For Us, Crimea is Ukraine, Donbas is Ukraine, and That’s How It Will Remain: Serbian President

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has referred to Crimea and Donbas as Ukrainian territories. He made this statement in an interview with Bloomberg, as reported by RTVI.

“For us, Crimea is Ukraine, Donbas is Ukraine, and that’s how it will remain,” he stated. According to him, Belgrade initially said that it does not support the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

“It is wrong to assume that the Serbian government fully supports the Russian leadership,” Vučić said, adding, “We traditionally have good relations, but that does not mean we support every decision or the majority of decisions coming from the Kremlin.”

Bloomberg notes that Vučić, who has held numerous meetings with Vladimir Putin in recent years and has taken Russian language lessons to communicate directly with him, mentioned that he has not spoken to his counterpart for “many months.”

The operation in Ukraine has strained Moscow and Belgrade's relations, according to the newspaper. The agency also recalls that Vučić demanded the cessation of the drafting of Serbs to participate in military operations under the “Wagner Group.”

“Wagner will not do this in Serbia,” Vučić said in the interview, highlighting that the country’s laws prohibit joining private military companies.