Vucic: War in Ukraine affected Serbia hugely

Serbia has been seriously affected by the situation around Ukraine, but Belgrade still doesn’t intend to impose sanctions against Moscow, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post, Report informs.

Asked if the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has affected Serbia or may affect his country in the near future, Vucic answered that he refrains himself from “making big forecasts about the future,” yet “it [the war] affected us hugely. We have the highest electricity prices that we have ever had. We have a good contract with Russians for 2 billion cubic meters of gas, but we still need 1.2 billion cubic meters more. We buy gas from TTF spot [a virtual trading point for natural gas in the Netherlands] which has a very high price. In concrete terms, we paid a huge price.”

In addition, Vucic said that “we supported territorial integrity of Ukraine, because of Serbia's case, as well, Resolution 1244 we couldn't support that sort of incursion on Ukraine at the end of February this year.”

Yet Serbia is one of the very few countries in Europe that didn’t impose sanctions against Russia. The reason, according to Vucic, is because “we were under sanctions for decades and only ordinary people suffered a lot [from these sanctions]. We don't believe in sanctions, sanctions politics, it's something similar to your [Israel’s] complex position.”