{"id":429452,"date":"2025-06-11T19:18:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/06\/11\/visita-vucic-odessa-legami-russia-ue\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T21:03:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T19:03:57","slug":"serbia-pro-russian-president-aleksandar-vucic-in-ukraine-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/06\/11\/serbia-pro-russian-president-aleksandar-vucic-in-ukraine-for-the-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbia, pro-Russian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 in Ukraine for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – A turn of events between the Western Balkans and Ukraine. One of Vladimir Putin<\/strong>‘s main European allies, Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, surprisingly attended a summit in Odessa<\/strong>, where he met\u00a0his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong> in his first official visit to the country. Could this be an attempt to reposition Belgrade<\/strong> on the international chessboard<\/strong>, further away from Moscow and closer to Brussels?<\/p>\n

The announcement, released by the Serbian presidency office, came as a surprise to everyone. Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong> travelled to Odessa<\/strong> today (11 June) for a one-day official visit, setting foot in Ukraine for the first time<\/strong> since he came to power in 2012. The authoritarian Balkan leader\u00a0participated in a summit organised by Kiev that brings together a\u00a0dozen southeastern<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0European countries<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Among others present in the port city, hit in the past few hours by\u00a0<\/span>another Russian bombing,<\/strong>\u00a0were also\u00a0<\/span>the newly elected Romanian president<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Nicu\u0219or Dan<\/strong>, the Moldovan president\u00a0<\/span>Maia Sandu<\/strong>, the Greek premier\u00a0<\/span>Kyriakos Mitsotakis,<\/strong>\u00a0and the Croatian premier\u00a0<\/span>Andrej Plenkovi\u0107<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0No invitations, however, for the representatives of<\/strong> Kosovo<\/strong>: probably a gesture of good faith on the Ukrainian side<\/strong> towards Belgrade, which does not recognise Pristina’s independence.<\/p>\n

\n

Grateful to all the leaders and partners who came together in Odesa for the Fourth Ukraine\u2013Southeast Europe Summit.@sandumaiamd<\/a>, @JakovMilatovic<\/a>, @NicusorDanRO<\/a>, @avucic<\/a>, @R_JeliazkovPM<\/a>, @AndrejPlenkovic<\/a>, @kmitsotakis<\/a>, @elisaspiropali<\/a>, @IzetMexhiti<\/a>, @tfajon<\/a><\/p>\n

Your presence sends\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Q58VCl0hdK<\/a><\/p>\n

– Volodymyr Zelenskyy (@ZelenskyyUa) June 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

According to several observers, the appearance in Odessa should be read as a <\/span>political signal from the Serbian leader<\/span><\/strong>, who is attempting to <\/span>reposition his country a little further away from Russia and a little closer to the EU<\/span><\/strong>. Vu\u010di\u0107 had so far juggled a <\/span>complicated balancing act between Moscow and Brussels<\/span><\/strong>,\u00a0which did not seem to have caused him any particular difficulties.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of <\/span>Vladimir Putin<\/span><\/strong>‘s strongest European allies (with whom
\n<\/span>he celebrated<\/span><\/a> the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany on 9 May), the Serbian president maintains <\/span>deep economic, energy, strategic, and cultural-historical<\/span><\/strong> ties with the Federation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In order not to alienate the Kremlin, it is trying to remain ‘neutral’ with regard to the war in Ukraine: <\/span>it has not joined the EU sanctions against Moscow<\/span><\/strong> (the<\/span> 18th package<\/span><\/a> is coming up) and <\/span>provides humanitarian (but not military) aid to Kyiv<\/span><\/strong>, while at UN votes he\u00a0has repeatedly sided <\/span>in favour of the territorial integrity of the attacked country<\/span><\/strong>, avoiding recognising Crimea and the other partially occupied oblasts’ as <\/span>de jure Russian territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even so, in recent days the <\/span>relationship between Moscow and Belgrade<\/span><\/strong> seems to have\u00a0<\/span>suddenly cracked<\/span><\/strong>. At the end of May, Russian <\/span>intelligence<\/span><\/strong> accused Serbia of sending arms to Kyiv through triangulations with NATO countries such as <\/span>Bulgaria<\/span><\/strong>, <\/span>Czechia,<\/span><\/strong> and <\/span>Poland<\/span><\/strong> as well as other African intermediaries, going so far as to speak of a ‘<\/span>backstabbing<\/span><\/strong>‘ by the traditional Balkan ally. Serbia, like Russia, is <\/span>historically opposed to NATO<\/span><\/strong>, having suffered its bombing in 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Vladimir<\/a>
Russian President Vladimir Putin during celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany on 9 May 2025 in Moscow (photo: Vyacheslav Prokofyev\/Sputnik via Afp)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, at least on paper, <\/span>Vu\u010di\u0107 aims to bring Belgrade into the twelve-star club<\/span><\/strong>. But on the path to membership weigh\u2014or have weighed so far \u2014both the increasingly authoritarian <\/span>management of power<\/span><\/strong> on his part (starting with the <\/span>repression of the oceanic protests<\/span><\/strong> that <\/span>have been rocking the country<\/span><\/a> for months) and the <\/span>awkward closeness with the Russian tsar<\/span><\/strong>, despite <\/span>Ant\u00f3nio Costa’s<\/span><\/strong> <\/a>and<\/span> Kaja Kallas’<\/span><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, <\/span>22 negotiating chapters out of a total of 33<\/span><\/strong> are open and a couple have been provisionally closed, but the <\/span>process has been in mothballs<\/span><\/strong> for a few years. Specifically, the problems would be related to the opening of cluster 3 (inclusive growth), as the Twenty-seven\u00a0<\/span>do not consider the rule of law<\/span><\/strong> situation satisfactory, including the fight against corruption, the independence of the judiciary, and media freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

The truth, at any rate, is that Serbia’s <\/span>approximation to the EU<\/span><\/strong>\u2014in parallel with its distancing from Russia\u2014is in the <\/span>strategic interest of Brussels<\/span><\/strong>. It is probably still too early, however, to say whether we are facing a <\/span>realignment of Belgrade’s foreign policy<\/span><\/strong>, which would entail Vu\u010di\u0107’s abandonment of decades-long alliances and\u00a0without a concrete prospect of membership.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The authoritarian leader of Belgrade attended a high-level summit convened by Zelensky. Moscow’s intelligence accuses the Balkan country of selling arms to Kyiv<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":429447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26042,25802,26065,25836,26071],"class_list":["post-429452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-alexandar-vucic-en","tag-eu-enlargement-en","tag-inserbia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429452"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429458,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429452\/revisions\/429458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}