Serbia urges Russia to stop recruiting its citizens

• The Serbian legislature prohibits its residents from participating in foreign conflicts.
• Serb volunteers fought alongside pro-Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015.
• Numerous persons have been punished for volunteering.

Russia should stop recruiting Serbs to fight alongside its Wagner paramilitary squad in Ukraine, according to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Vucic chastised Russia’s websites and social media groups for publishing adverts in Serbian in which the Wagner group recruits volunteers.

“Why do you call anyone from Serbia, Wagner, when you know it’s against our rules?” Vucic stated in a broadcast late Monday.

Serb volunteers fought alongside pro-Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. No one knows the actual number at any given time, but dozens of Serbs have signed up to fight in Ukraine since 2014, according to observers.

The Serbian legislature prohibits its residents from participating in foreign conflicts, and numerous persons have been punished for doing so.

Vucic denied claims made by the Wagner group.

On Tuesday, Russia’s RIA news agency broadcast television images of two masked men identified as Serb volunteers during a weapons training course in Russian-controlled sections of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.

Serbia is a candidate for membership in the European Union, its primary economic partner and investor, but it also retains commercial and military ties with Russia, a longstanding Slavic, and Orthodox Christian friend.

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