Centenary “Commander” in Serbia: Release Russia's historic lands, then with army we'll continue to Kosovo

In his latest post, Zivkovic has said they are releasing the ruts to continue later in Kosovo.

We are releasing Russia's historic land, then with the army we will continue until Kosovo. There is no Serbia without Kosovo”, he has written.

Zivkovic has been in “alert status” since October of last year, when Russia began delocation of its forces along the Ukrainian border.

On Facebook, Zivkovic stresses that he is “the only Serbian commander who organised the Chetnik batalon and sent him to Crime in 2014”

Zivkovic was involved in an investigation into Serbia in 2018, because he was suspected to have organised the participation of other persons in a foreign battlefield.

He was arrested in August 2018, and the prosecution suspended investigations against him in April 2019.

So because of his participation in foreign wars, which is banned by law in Serbia, he never responded.

REL contacted him the day before the Russian offensive began on the territory of independent Ukraine.

According to him, many Serbian citizens who have gone to Donnetsk and Lugansk in 2014 and 2015 to fight are currently in the country.

Many Serbs have already married there, have their children and families”, Zivkovic says.

In Serbia, where Zivkovic is from, officials did not condemn Russia's movements, making the country the only one in its kind in Europe.

Zivkovic, who has been known to the public since 2014, when he volunteered to fight on the side of separatists, has no dilemma.

I have no doubt that volunteers from Serbia will come normally from Republika Srpska (BiH level), Montenegro and North Macedonia to join the fight against Ukrainian Army aggression”, Zivkovic says.

According to his information, it hasn't happened yet.

What are the official data on departures to Ukraine?

According to estimates by the Ukrainian Embassy in Serbia, from December 2018, more than 300 citizens fled Serbia to fight on the pro-Russian side, in the conflict that has claimed about 14,000 lives so far.

The participation and organisation of participation in war in the foreign state in Serbia has been a criminal offence since the start of applying changes to Serbia's Penal Code since 2014, with sentences threatened up to ten years in prison.

For participation in the war in Ukraine by the pro-Russian parties in 2015-2018, 32 sentences have been handed out in Serbia. The sentences were mainly mild.

One person was sentenced in 2021 for organising a battlefield trip to Ukraine, and the sentence is six months in prison at home.

On 21 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of Donnetsk and Luhansk separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and approved sending troops to the area.

Both regions are bordering Russia and have been under Russia-backed control since 2014. This Russian recognition provoked sharp reactions and sanctions by Western countries.

The situation is different compared to 2014 and 2015

Aleksandar Radic, editor of the Balkan Security Network and military analyst from Serbia, estimates it is expected that individuals from Serbia will again head to the front in Ukraine.

“We have a strong Russophylia in the Serbian people, then there are people who, motivated by a combination of their emotions and adventures, decide to go somewhere”, Radic says.

However, it shows that the situation with volunteers is different now, compared with 2014 and 2015.

“Now that the Russian army is formally present there, a possible war scenario implies the engagement of regular Russian military forces, and in this context I think that the possible role of aliens is marginalised.

He adds that this could be an obstacle in the political sense as well.

“could be a political burden for any country where these warriors come from. ”