Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on Thursday accused Serbia’s defense industry of supplying weapons to Ukraine, despite Belgrade’s official neutrality in the war.
At least seven leading Serbian defense companies have sent hundreds of thousands of rockets and millions of small arms cartridges to Ukraine using “fake” end-user certificates, the SVR claimed in a statement on its website.
“These shipments can hardly be justified on ‘humanitarian grounds.’ Their only obvious purpose is to kill and maim Russian servicemen and civilians,” the SVR said, calling the alleged transfers “an attempt to stab Russia in the back.”
Serbia exported 800 million euros ($908 million) worth of ammunition to Ukraine via third countries since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the Financial Times reported last summer.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who visited Moscow this month for Russia’s annual Victory Day military parade, has defended the exports as legal transactions fulfilled through intermediaries such as the United States, Spain and the Czech Republic.
“We have friends in Kyiv and in Moscow. These are our Slav brothers,” Vučić told FT. “I need to take care of my people, and that’s it.”
Russia’s SVR also invoked shared Slavic heritage in its statement on Thursday, accusing Serbia’s defense sector and unnamed “patrons” of seeking to “profit from the blood of fraternal Slavic peoples.”
Serbia maintains close ties with Moscow and depends heavily on Russian gas. Although it is a candidate for EU membership, it has not joined Western sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of Russians have relocated to Serbia since the February 2022 invasion and President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization order.
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