by Edward P. Joseph
Tirana Times, August 21, 2026 – At the NATO Summit in Ankara last month, I had the high honor of meeting President Zelensky. Had I known he was heading soon to Belgrade, I would have shared critical advice with his advisors. Besieged by an aggressor like Russia – which has an active, global foreign policy and network of affiliates like Serbia – Ukraine must learn from the continuing controversy over Zelensky’s Balkans visit.
Without question, President Zelensky advanced Ukraine’s interests by visiting the country that both Russia and China see as the core ally in the Balkans. The image of the Ukrainian and Serbian Presidents striding jointly down a red carpet before an honor guard surely doused morale in Moscow and stunned Beijing. Both capitals are acutely aware that Serbia – through lucrative arrangements with third-countries – supplies copious amounts of ammunition to Ukraine.
In other words, after visiting Kyiv last month, President Aleksandar Vučić is now flaunting his relationship with Russia’s arch enemy – whose forces use Serbian ammunition to kill invading Russian troops. And yet a weak, embattled President Putin can do little about it. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admitted as much in his follow-up interview on 14 August. Having just responded to a question about “helping Ukrainians kill Russians”, Lavrov stated that “it would be unacceptable if our Serbian brothers were to take part in arming the Kyiv regime.”
Yet the Kremlin has – to no avail – repeatedly assailed Serbia for knowingly selling “rockets and shells [that] … kill Russian soldiers.” Equally embarrassing, Moscow has pointed to Bulgaria as one of the conduits for Serbian ammunition. Lavrov hailed Prime Minister Rumen Radev as a leader (unlike Vučić) who “remains true to [his] principles and beliefs”, even as Bulgarian officials openly state that (lucrative) arms sales to Ukraine will continue.
Coming on the heels of a successful meeting with President Trump in Ankara, Zelensky’s warm reception by Vučić sent a powerful message to Russia sympathizers in Serbia and around the region: it is Ukraine that is winning the war and Russia that is losing. From neighboring Bulgaria to Bosnia’s Republika Sprska and Russia enthusiasts in Montenegro — those who cling to the notion that Russia will prevail over Ukraine suffered a serious setback. Radev’s insistence that Ukraine’s “cause is doomed” looks particularly dubious after the Zelensky visit to rival Serbia.
The prospect of Serbian-Ukrainian cooperation in the energy sector could signal further movement by Belgrade away from its dependence on Russian fossil fuels. After dragging his feet for nearly a year on American demands to force out the Russian owners from NIS, the one-time Serbian state oil monopoly, Vučić may be moving to finally conclude a sale with neighboring Hungary.
Unfortunately, what the visit will not do is force a strategic reassessment in Belgrade. Before the visit, Vučić made it clear that Serbia’s firm position — refusing to implement EU sanctions on Russia — would not change. And why would Belgrade shift? Breaking with Russia, as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has demanded, would mean wholesale embrace of the EU – and rule of law reforms that a corrupt Serbian regime can never afford to make.
To the contrary, the Zelensky visit is the boost that Vučić needed to maintain his phony ‘balance’ between Europe and the Serbian President’s true kindred spirits in Russia and China. Among other things, this means that Russia Today and Sputnik will continue to spew pro-Russian propaganda around the region from their Serbian base – in open defiance of EU sanctions.
Given that Kyiv knew in advance Belgrade’s firm line on sanctions, the puzzle is why Zelensky rewarded his host with an exaggerated, inaccurate statement on Kosovo – alienating the staunchly pro-Ukraine Albanian polity and promoting Putin’s core anti-NATO narrative. The Alliance’s circumvention of Russia at the UN Security Council in 1999, and the US-led process that led to Kosovo’s 2008 independence over Russian and Serbian objections are the touchstone events in the Russian President’s anti-Western worldview. Putin has repeatedly asserted that the cases of Serbia and Ukraine are “absolutely the same.”
Echoing this, Zelensky mistakenly conflated Ukraine’s and Serbia’s positions on international law in his public statement: “We respect the territorial integrity of our partners. We respect international law. That is our position. As for … the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo … Ukraine’s policy has not changed.” Lacking Balkans expertise on his team, Zelensky did not realize that in 2010, the International Court of Justice, in a case initiated by Serbia, declared that Kosovo’s declaration of independence violated neither international law nor the governing UN Security Council resolution on the former Serbian province.
Zelensky is not alone in his anxiety that Ukrainian recognition of Kosovo would enable Putin to use this as a ‘precedent’ justifying Russian recognition (and subsequent annexation) of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. But Putin already repeatedly – including in formal speeches before the Duma – has invoked ‘the Kosovo precedent’ as the excuse for Russian predations. Ironically, by pressing the false Serbia-Ukraine analogy, Zelensky encourages a tighter embrace between Belgrade and Moscow. Serbia depends on the Kremlin to block Kosovo’s entry into the United Nations and other international organizations.
The true parallel with Ukraine is Kosovo – a country subjugated for years by a far bigger and more powerful adversary until, belatedly, Western allies intervened. To pursue its interests in the Balkans, President Zelensky needs to combine pragmatic cooperation with Serbia with a principled and strategic grasp of the Kosovo standoff. It is Russia, not Ukraine, that needs to perpetuate the myth of NATO aggression leading to a transgression of international law.
It is not too late to mitigate the error. Ukraine can emulate Israel which has managed to maintain close links with both Serbia – including as the recipient of Serbian ammunition — and Kosovo. Indeed, Kyiv can follow the precedent set by Moscow, which has had an official liaison office in Pristina throughout Kosovo’s almost two decades of independence. And just as Presidents Zelensky and Vučić agreed to advance economic cooperation, so can Ukraine and Kosovo.
Ultimately, as this author has written, Ukraine’s interests lie in recognition of Kosovo – a step that will force the four NATO non-recognizers (Spain, Slovakia, Romania, and Greece) to reconsider their stubborn, legally-flawed positions. The Kyiv-Kosovo catalyst will open a NATO path for Kosovo, closing down Serbia’s dependence on the Kremlin. Sticking to principle is, in the end, the most pragmatic course.
The post Zelensky Visit to Belgrade: What Could He Learn from Israeli Experience appeared first on Tirana Times.
