Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Defence Minister Miloš Vučević, Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, and arms producer Krušik, denied reports that Serbia has been selling weapons to Ukraine, via Turkey and Slovakia, with Vučić calling the reports “notorious lies”.
In the reports, 122mm rockets made by arms producer Krušik were allegedly flown from Serbia to Turkey, Slovakia and then Ukraine.
“It is a notorious lie that Serbia has sold a single bullet, weapon or tool to Ukraine, or Russia. Serbia produces and sells ammunition. We have many factories in the defence industry. When you produce ammunition, it always ends up in a war zone,” Vučić spoke live from Doha, where Serbia is participating in the fifth UN Conference on the least developed countries.
“In Serbia, there is the so-called allowed user and we export exclusively to those countries. People say that we exported through Turkey, but knowing there was a possibility that part of the merchandise would be sent to either side of the war, we made it impossible to export ammunition that we gave to Turkey”, Vučić said.
Those spreading the Ukraine story are “liars and denunciators”, he added.
“Serbia wants to make more profit in that industry branch, 50.000 people are connected to the industry. We will make more weapons and we are clean as a whistle,” Vučić said from Doha.
Dačić also said Serbia had not exported, or given permission for the exportation of arms to Ukraine, Russia, “or any country that could be contested from an international point of view”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously stated that Russia is “deeply concerned” over reports of Serbia selling a batch of rockets to Ukraine.
“We are following this story, and have asked Belgrade for an explanation”, she added.
(EURACTIV.rs | Bojana Zimonjić Jelisavac)
Source: euractiv.com
