Kuleba pays an unexpected visit to Serbia: meets with the president and prime minister
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and First Lady Olena Zelenska made a surprise visit to Russia-friendly Serbia, signaling warming relations between the two countries despite Serbia's refusal to join international sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine, media reports say.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made a surprise visit to Russia-friendly Serbia together with Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska as a sign of warming relations between the two countries, The Guardian reports, UNN writes.
Details
As reported by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is visiting Belgrade on May 12-13 as part of the visit to Serbia of Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska. "The program of the Ukrainian Foreign Minister in Belgrade includes meetings with the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, the Speaker of the National Assembly Ana Brnabic, the Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Djuric," the Foreign Ministry said.
"During his first visit to Serbia since the start of Russia's aggression against Ukraine in 2022, Kuleba met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and new Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, whose government has several pro-Russian ministers, including two who have been subject to US sanctions," The Guardian writes.
A statement from the prime minister's office after the talks said that "Serbia is committed to respecting international law and the territorial integrity of every UN member state, including Ukraine.
Although Serbia has condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine, it has refused to join international sanctions against Moscow and instead maintains warm and friendly relations with its traditional Slavic ally, the newspaper writes.
Serbia has declared neutrality on the war in Ukraine, and its authorities assure that Serbia does not supply weapons to any side.
The visit of Kuleba and Zelenskaya, who visited the Serbian capital on Sunday with Serbian First Lady Tamara Vucic, was met with criticism in Moscow. Readers' comments in Russian state media such as "shameful" were published in Rosmedia, the newspaper notes.