Russia strengthens Serbia's military, thanks Vucinqi

Vuciq, during a visit to a military airport near Belgrade, said he is impressed by what Russian ground-air systems can do.

“We are grateful to our Russian friends who have dramatically increased our defence capacities”, Vuciq said.

Russia's Defence Ministry announced that its S-400 and Pantsir-S missile systems They are participating in joint exercises with Serbian forces in Serbia.

The S-400 system will return to Russia after six days of exercise, while Vuciq said his government has purchased the Pantsir-S system.

We're talking about fantastic systems. If we had S-400, no one would dare fly over Serbia”, Vuciq said.

NATO has bombed Serbia in 1999 to stop violence in Kosovo.

Serbia maintains close political and economic ties with Russia, even though it says it intends to join the European Union.

Belgrade has pledged to remain outside NATO and has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia in connection with the war in Ukraine.

Russia has contributed to Serbia's army with fighter planes, strike helicopters and tanks.

In another development Friday, Serbia signed free trade agreements with the Euro-Asian Economic Union, led by Russia.