US Embassy: We have information that Serbia does not sell weapons to Ukraine

The US Embassy in Belgrade had information that Serbia was not selling weapons to Ukraine, Radio Free Europe (RFE) was told regarding allegations in secret Pentagon documents, N1 reports.

"We cannot comment on alleged classified information, but according to our knowledge, Serbia does not sell weapons to Ukraine," the American Embassy in Belgrade told RFE/RL.

Transmitting data from leaked secret Pentagon documents, the Reuters agency announced earlier today that Serbia had agreed to send weapons to Kyiv or had already sent them. This was immediately denied by the Serbian Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs, Milos Vucevic and Ivica Dacic.

Vucevic stated that Serbia "did not send weapons to the Ukrainian or Russian side, nor to the countries surrounding that conflict", and that it would not do so.

"Someone obviously aims to destabilize our country and drag it into a conflict in which we will not participate. There is always the possibility that some weapon will somehow magically be found on the territory of the conflict, but that has absolutely nothing to do with Serbia. This is a question for those countries that do not respect international norms, contractual clauses, and business practices," Vucevic said.

Dacic said that Serbia respected the policy of military neutrality and sold weapons to third parties, which were far from the conflict and had nothing to do with it.

"Serbia, respecting internal and international legal acts, does not export weapons and military equipment to any country if this would enable the outbreak or continuation of armed conflicts, endanger the preservation of regional peace and security, or endanger its defense interests," Dacic said.

The document, seen by Reuters, summarizes European governments' responses to Ukraine's requests for military training and "lethal aid," or weapons, and was among dozens of classified documents released online in recent weeks that are believed to be the most serious disclosure of American secrets in recent years.

The issue of sending Serbian weapons to Ukrainian forces has been topical since the Russian portal "mash.ru" announced on February 27, without citing sources, that at least 3,500 rockets produced in the Serbian arms factory Krusik, which Kyiv used in attacks on Russian positions, had ended up in the military arsenals of Ukraine.

On March 2, Moscow announced that it had requested an official explanation from Belgrade about the information that Serbian weapons had been delivered to Ukraine. The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, said at the time that Moscow had been deeply concerned about allegations of Serbia's involvement in arms sales to Ukraine.