Ukrainian Ambassador: Most Important Thing for Kyiv Today Is to Stop the War, We Expect Support from Our Partners

Volodymyr Tolkach, NIkola Selakovic (BETAPHOTO)

Ukrainian Ambassador to Belgrade Volodymyr Tolkach said on June 15 that for his country "the most important thing today is to stop the war, and it expects support from its partners both in Serbia and in Ukraine."

Stating that 7,500 Ukrainian citizens were currently in Serbia, the ambassador said that he had toured a refugee center in Vranje with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in early June, and had had the opportunity to see that "Serbia shares in the tragedy of Ukraine and will continue to support Ukraine."

However, events with the letter "Z," which for Ukraine, as he put it, represents the fascist swastika, make Ukrainian citizens feel unsafe in Serbia. In an interview with the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation, the ambassador said that Vucic had expressed a readiness to help the medical treatment of wounded Ukrainians and reconstruction of infrastructure.

He also said that Ukraine "has many things in common" with Serbia today, primarily the European path because both countries had chosen it, and that intensification of economic cooperation was important. "We should introduce a free trade zone in commerce," said Tolkach and recalled that for Ukraine Serbia was the only country in Europe which had customs barriers in place.