{"id":25526,"date":"2026-08-07T20:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/25526\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:21:09","slug":"ukraines-zelensky-makes-first-visit-to-russia-friendly-serbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/25526\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s Zelensky makes first visit to Russia-friendly Serbia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived on Friday for his first official visit to Serbia, one of the few European countries that have maintained friendly relations with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Zelensky confirmed the arrival on Friday on his official Telegram channel. The office of Serbia\u2019s populist President Aleksandar Vucic had previously announced the visit late on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cImportant talks are scheduled for today and tomorrow,\u201d Zelensky said. He added that he will meet with Vucic and Serbia\u2019s Prime Minister Djuro Macut.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe will discuss expanding economic ties between our countries, relations with the European Union, and other areas where we can find practical opportunities that benefit our peoples, as well as security issues,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The visit comes as Vucic tries to balance Serbia\u2019s traditional ties with Moscow against pressure to align its foreign policy with the European Union. Vucic has refused to join international sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, citing historic ties between the two Slavic nations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks during a press conference in Freiberg, Germany, in December 2024. Photo: dpa\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a40b3a68-1de7-4fd9-88c6-0c30de629fb0_25f6f65f.jpg\" title=\"Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks during a press conference in Freiberg, Germany, in December 2024. Photo: dpa\"\/>Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks during a press conference in Freiberg, Germany, in December 2024. Photo: dpa<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Serbia is in the process of joining the EU, but that has been stalled partly because of Belgrade\u2019s policies towards Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived on Friday for his first official visit to Serbia, one of the few&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6983,9024,868,9025,31,158,38,25,2558,26,3775,35],"class_list":["post-25526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aleksandar-vucic","tag-belgrade","tag-brussels","tag-djuro-macut","tag-european-union","tag-kyiv","tag-moscow","tag-russia","tag-serbia","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelensky","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}