Serbian Volunteers Start Combat Training in Ukraine, President Vucic Asks Russia to Stop Recruiting Its People: Break the Rules

JAKARTA - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the recruitment of his citizens as volunteers to fight with Wagner Group mercenaries in Ukraine violated the rules, firmly asking Russia to stop such a move.

President Vucic criticized Russian websites and social media groups for publishing advertisements in Serbian, in which the Wagner Group called for volunteers to join its ranks.

"Why would you, from Wagner, call anyone from Serbia when you know it's against our rules?" President Vucic said late Monday in a broadcast by Belgrade-based Happy TV.

It is known that the Serbian legislature prohibits the participation of its citizens in conflicts abroad and several people have been punished for doing so.

President Vucic denied allegations that the Wagner Group led by Evgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had a presence in Serbia where pro-Kremlin and ultranationalist organizations supported the invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic also warned Serbs against joining Russia in the war against Ukraine.

"This will result in legal consequences once they can be held accountable before state bodies," Vucevic told Radio Free Europe.

On Tuesday, Russia's RIA news agency aired TV footage of two masked men who identified them as Serbian volunteers, on a weapons training course in the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.

The region's governor Yevgeny Balitsky said Tuesday the Serbs who had joined Pavel Sudoplatov's volunteer battalion, were to begin combat training duties.

"Serbian volunteers have started carrying out combat training duties, including coordination and cohesion as members of Pavel Sudoplatov's battalion," he wrote on his Telegram channel, as quoting TASS, adding that the training process takes place in conditions close to combat conditions. Volunteers are responsible for ensuring the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Region and the city of Melitopol.

Furthermore, Balitsky said the recruitment of volunteers for the battalion was continuing. On January 13, Balitsky announced Serbian volunteers were joining a battalion of volunteers named after Pavel Sudoplatov, adding that in his home country, the volunteers serve in the military police and are experts in martial arts.

At the end of December, Balitsky said that Pavel Sudoplatov's battalion had already carried out a number of tasks in the rear, but had not yet been sent to the front.

Despite repeatedly condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations and several other international forums, Belgrade also refuses to impose sanctions on Moscow.

Serbia itself is completely dependent on gas imports from Russia and oil retailer NIS is owned by Russia's Gazprom.

Serbia is a candidate to join the European Union, its main trading partner and investor, but also maintains trade and military cooperation with Russia, a traditional ally of Slavs and Orthodox Christians.

Serb volunteers took part in fighting alongside pro-Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. No one knows for sure the exact number at any one time, but dozens of Serbs have signed up to fight in Ukraine since 2014, observers say.