Ukraine's Ambassador to Serbia: Our attitude towards Kosovo has not changed

Ukraine's Ambassador to Serbia, Volodymyr Tolkach, has said Ukraine is grateful for the help it has given, but has added that its position on Kosovo has not changed.

Tolkach speaking of public television, has said Ukraine has a principled stance that territorial integrity and sovereignty should be respected.

“We have always been stable in foreign policy and have always supported every country within the borders that are internationally recognised”, says Ukraine's ambassador.

On the other hand, Ukraine, along with other European countries, tried to stop bloody wars in this region, such as it was in 1999, but our efforts did not suffice”, the Ukrainian diplomat recalled.

“Therefore today we are grateful for the support Kosovo gives to Ukraine, but at the same time reiterate our principled position that territorial integrity and sovereignty should be respected”, Ambassador Tolkach said.

“at the same time, who can really be ungrateful for help coming from every side in the form of compassion, humanity, for any given help, any country, territory or part that might be”, he points out, for RTK.

Speaking on the current topic of recent tensions between Kosovo and Serbia and the possibility of continuing dialogue between the two countries, the Ukrainian ambassador said the most important thing is to seek a compromise.

“From Ukraine's position, we have followed the course of compromise by defending our country for 23 years, but as you can see, we have not been able to avoid this bloody fight”, he said, drawing parallels between his country and Russia's relations with those between Kosovo and Serbia.

” And as far as compromise is concerned, I don't know if it can be achieved, but on the other hand, a compromise must be sought by the last moment”, the Ukrainian ambassador declares.

“Whoever forgets that human life is the greatest asset will sooner or later suffer because we see what is happening in Ukraine and it would not be good for something like that to be repeated”, he added.

The ambassador is convinced that only European values and access to the EU protect the region from dangerous Russian influence, adding that Russia wants to destroy Ukraine.

Today when we defend Ukraine's territory, we are protecting not only our country but all of Europe and the values it brings”.

An eight-year-old war has been fought in Ukraine for our country, for sovereignty and integrity”, the ambassador said.

According to him, here at the exhibition you can see the consequences of that bloody war.

“What Putin did in Ukraine questioned the existence of our state and us as a nation”, Ambassador Tolkach said.

Referring to the issue of sanctions the EU and West are asking from Serbia to deploy Russia, Ambassador Tolkach says it would be good for Serbia to defend European values along with Ukraine.

“Ukrainian and Serbia have a common goal, which is EU integration”, he said.

“I cannot expect and insist that Serbia impose sanctions on Russia, but we would be grateful if Serbia's new government would go with us on the path we have jointly chosen, the EU path”, the Ukrainian ambassador stressed.

“We have just become a candidate for EU membership, Serbia has long been a candidate, and it would be very good to defend that path with mutual effort and effort”, Torkach stressed.

“If Serbia leads the same policy that we lead, which are issues leading to the EU, we will be grateful to”.

Asked how much you think destabilisation is possible in the region, due to Russian propaganda, Ambassador Volodyyr Tolkach says the risk is real.

“As far as Russian propaganda is concerned, we can say it is war propaganda and the murder of all that we are protecting Europe today”, he said.

All regions located within the possibility of a Russian missile are at risk. Because the sooner people start promoting European values, the sooner the region will be in a safe area”, Ukraine's ambassador to Serbia, Volodyyr Tolkach, told RTK.

Ukraine remains one of the countries that still does not recognise Kosovo's independence.