Serbia lobbies, few metres from Kosovo, introduces tanks Russia gave it to

Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq has said on Saturday in the “barracks Mija Stanimiroviq” in Nis that he is grateful to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, for donating tanks and armoured vehicles.

11 T-72-like tanks were presented in this town. MS and 10 vehicles armor.

Vuciqi has stressed that the aim of this donation is for Serbia to further strengthen the army and, as he has said, the position of military neutrality, so that it can prevent any potential aggressor, broadcasts rel.

These devices are said to be part of the Russian donation, which consists of six MiG-29 fighter planes, 30 armoured detection machines BRD-2 and 30 T-72 tanks, based on the agreement between Serbian President Vuciq and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2016.

Why is Serbia arming itself and at what price?

Besides Vuciqi, the tank presentation has been attended by Serbian Government Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, Serbian Army Chief of General Staff General Milan Mojsilovic and Russia's Ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandar Bocan-Kharchenko.

This is not the end of our co-operation, it's just the beginning of a new phase. Russia will continue to hand over armoured vehicles and other types of weapons so that Serbia strengthens its sovereignty,” has said Russian Ambassador Bocan-Kharchenko.

Early in November, Serbian Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic had confirmed that T-72 tanks would arrive from Russia to Serbia, claiming the same would strengthen Serbian military combat equipment.

The current T-72 tanks must arrive, as part of the NWucciq-Putinı agreement in Sochi. They significantly strengthen our combat capabilities,” he declared for Pink TV on November 1st.

In 2019, Serbia's Defence Ministry has rejected the Balkan Service request of Radio Free Europe (REL) to submit copies of the agreement reached.

As a reason, the Defence Ministry had then declared that the required “agreements contained foreign secret data, that is, data entrusted to the Republic of Serbia by another state, with the obligation to keep those secrets”.

It is still not known who will pay the expenses of transporting weapons and military equipment Russia has donated to Serbia or how much transportation has been paid.