The Ukrainian president continues to travel the world to try to rally support for his country while Ukraine is suffering on the front, due to lack of ammunition among other things. After a visit to Saudi Arabia, Volodymyr Zelensky has been in Albania since last night where he is due to participate this Wednesday in a summit with the leaders of South-Eastern European countries. The opportunity in particular to meet once again the Serbian president, the only European country, but which is not a member of the European Union, which has decided not to align itself with Western sanctions against Russia .
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If Albania, the host country of this meeting, has always shown unwavering support for Ukraine, this is far from being the case for Serbia, often presented as an ally of Moscow in Europe.
Its president, Aleksandar Vucic, continues to play a balancing role between a cordial understanding with the Kremlin and proximity with the European Union to which his country remains a candidate for membership. Serbia passes UN resolutions explicitly condemning Russian invasion of Ukraine while refusing to align with European sanctions against Moscow. According to a survey by our colleagues from Balkan MailSerbian companies are getting rich by selling Western products to Russia, what violates sanctions against Moscow. A candidate for European integration – the Union is, by far, its main economic partner – but not a member of NATO, Serbia remains very dependent on Russian gas.
This Western Balkans summit on the Ukrainian issue is therefore crucial for changing positions. According to the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, the support of these South-Eastern European countries is essential for Ukraine, as he specifies in an interview with EURACTIV information site.
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The Ukrainian president has already met his Serbian counterpart several times, without succeeding in making him change his position. But in the presence of the Croatian Prime Minister, the Kosovar president and of course the Albanian leaders, Volodymyr Zelensky hopes to rally Serbia to his cause. Because on the front the situation is deteriorating for the Ukrainian army, due to lack of ammunition. The new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armies, Oleksandr Syrsky, announced in mid-February, after visiting the hottest areas of the Eastern Front with Defense Minister Roustem Umerov, that the situation on the ground was “extremely complex and tense”.
Half of Western weapons promised to kyiv are delivered late, declared Defense Minister Roustem Oumerov on Saturday, during a forum dedicated to the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president will therefore also take advantage of this first trip to Albania since the start of the conflict to recall how urgent it is that his country be supported both materially and financially to avoid a possible victory for Russia.
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