Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic has denied recent media reports about his country allegedly providing Ukraine with lethal weaponry, according to Russian state-owned news agency Sputnik.
"Another lie has been published that Serbia is selling weapons to Ukraine. The goal is obvious to someone — to destabilize our country and involve it in a conflict in which we do not want to participate," Vucevic told Sputnik.
Reuters reported on April 12, citing one of the allegedly leaked secret Pentagon documents, that Serbia had agreed to provide Ukraine with lethal aid or had already sent it. According to the classified U.S. document, Serbia also has the political will and military capability to send Ukraine weapons in the future.
The Serbian government claims its neutrality in Russia's war against Ukraine and remains the only European country that has refused to impose sanctions on Moscow over its invasion. Serbia and Russia have a long history of close ties, but this is not the first time tensions have risen between both countries due to the war in Ukraine.
In March, Belgrad denied that it supplied Ukraine with 3,500 missiles after the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its "deepest concerns" over media reports.
Vucevic refuted reports that Serbia sent missiles to Ukraine while also admitting the possibility that a third party could have been involved in their transportation.
"If private companies buy weapons in third states' markets and then sell them to other companies in other countries, that is not a question for Serbia, that is international trade," he said, as cited by AP.
On Jan. 17, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic asked Russia to stop recruiting mercenaries in Serbia for the war in Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
