Kiev thanks Serbia for humanitarian aid, arms matter

Ukraine's Ambassador to Serbia Volodymyr Tolkach said Ukraine is grateful to Serbia for its separate humanitarian aid, but that more is needed.

“Today is the issue of supporting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, which at the moment requires not only humanitarian aid but also the provision of weapons and ammunition”, Torkach said at a media conference dedicated to relations between Ukraine and Serbia.

He added that the protection of Ukraine's territorial integrity cannot survive only humanitarian aid.

The Reuters agency reported on 12 April, citing a confidential document of the Pentagon, that Serbia has agreed to hand over weapons to Kiev or has already sent them.

Officials in Serbia, through their statements, rejected such claims.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th of 2022, Serbian authorities decided that Serbia would not export weapons to any party in the conflict and not allow the transport of weapons through its territory.

Ukraine's Ambassador to Serbia, Voldymyr Tolkach, said on 12 May that the Ukrainian people's war and the losses they are suffering “are due to our common European future”.

He also said that Serbian-Ukrainian relations -- now more than a year -- are developing along the war situation in Ukraine.

Russia's “Aggression against Ukraine affects these relationships. On the basis of this, relations between Serbia and Ukraine” are formed, Tolkach said.

Serbia is a rare country in Europe that refused to sanction Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, it backed several resolutions condemning the Russian invasion in Ukraine. /rel