"A knife in the back": How Russia raged against Serbia

There is evidence that Serbia, through third countries, is sending weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. The Russian secret service has now raised serious accusations against its ally in the Balkans.

Since February 2022, when Russian dictator Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Serbia has repeatedly emphasized its neutrality in the war that has shaken Europe. Despite this, Belgrade's autocrat, Aleksandar Vučić, continues to emphasize its close ties with Russia, as a brotherly Orthodox people.

In early May, Vučić attended a military parade in Moscow marking the end of World War II 80 years ago – a blow to the EU, as Serbia is a candidate for membership. Several EU countries even denied Vučić the right to fly over their territories on his way to Moscow. With this visit and the meeting with Putin, the Serbian president appeared to be trying to ease relations with Russia.

The reason for the tensions is this: since 2023 there have been indications that Serbia has been sending weapons to Ukraine via third countries. A Pentagon document suggested this suspicion. According to a report by the British newspaper “Financial Times” from 2024, the government in Belgrade has sold Ukraine ammunition worth about 800 million euros.

Last Thursday, the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR directly accused Serbia of arms trade with Ukraine. According to the Russian side, at least seven major Serbian arms companies have supplied Kiev with hundreds of thousands of missiles and millions of rounds of ammunition for small arms. The sales are said to have been carried out through forged certificates for end users and intermediaries. According to Moscow, arms deliveries to Ukraine are made through NATO member states such as Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Recently, “more exotic routes” are also being used for this purpose, involving several African countries, Russian agents assume.

The Russian secret service's statement culminates in the accusation that Serbia is trying to stab Russia with a "stab in the back." The purpose of these arms shipments, according to the Russians, is to kill and maim Russian soldiers and civilians. "It seems that the desire of Serbian arms manufacturers and their supporters to profit from the blood of the fraternal Slavic peoples has made them completely forget who their real friends are and who their enemies are," the SVR declared.

This slap from Moscow seems to have troubled the Serbian president. In a statement to state broadcaster RTS, Vucic promised to stop the sale of weapons and ammunition if there was any suspicion of misuse or shipment to the war zone in Ukraine. In 2023, in the Financial Times, he had spoken differently. “I am not stupid,” he said then. “I know that maybe some of these weapons end up in Ukraine.”

The Russian portal Mash reported in 2023 that 3.500 missiles from the Serbian company Krushik had been delivered to the Ukrainian army via Turkey and Slovakia. Krushik denied this after a video was released purportedly showing the missiles being loaded into a warehouse in Bratislava.

The accusations from Moscow now show that relations between Russia and Serbia are not as perfect as Vučić tries to portray them. Since taking power in 2012, he has pursued a policy known as “four-chair diplomacy”: Serbia aspires to join the EU, but maintains close ties with Russia, China and other autocratic regimes. Apart from Turkey and Belarus, Serbia is the only European country that has not imposed sanctions on Russia.

This constant movement between East and West cannot work for long. Bosko Jakšić, one of the most prominent foreign policy commentators in Serbia, told the Belgrade-based magazine “Vreme”: “If you are going to sell ammunition, say so openly. Thinking that the Russians will not find out that you are sending tons of ammunition to Ukraine is another case of dilettantism.” Many analysts in Belgrade are wondering why the Russian secret service statement was published at this moment, when it has always been known that Serbia was sending weapons to Ukraine. Jakšić speculates that this has to do with some new arrangement between Vučić and the Donald Trump administration. It seems that Vučić has promised something to Trump, and this has alarmed the Russians, Jakšić believes.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, recently urged Serbia to make a “strategic decision” between the West and the East. After a meeting with Vučić in Belgrade, she said: “I really don’t understand why anyone would want to be on the side of the person who is leading this terrible war in Ukraine.”
So far, Vučić’s East-West policy has benefited Serbia. Since 2014, the European Union has provided Serbia with around four billion euros in aid. The EU is also the country’s most important trading partner. At the same time, Vučić has allowed Russia’s influence to grow in the Serbian economy. Serbia’s oil industry is owned by the Russian state-owned giant Gazprom Neft. About two-thirds of Serbia’s gas needs are covered by Russia at favorable prices. The US has put Serbia under pressure to reduce its dependence on Russian oil. The deadline for this was extended during the Donald Trump administration, but is expected to expire at the end of June.