Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Claims Serbia Sending Weapons to Ukraine via Third Countries

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Ammunition produced at defense factories in Serbia, mainly for heavy long-range systems, is sent in the interest of Ukraine to NATO member states in the form of complete sets of parts for assembly, according to a press release published on the Russian Foreign Intelligence (SVR) website. 

“This allows Kiev to formally receive at a later time not Serbian military products, but those assembled at weapons factories in Western countries. Munitions are assembled and equipped primarily in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria” according to the report. 

The agency’s intelligence shows that “the Ukrainian military is very grateful to Serbian manufacturers of weapons and ammunition for their contribution to maintaining the combat readiness of the Ukrainian armed forces,” it is said in the release.

According to the report, the Krusik plant in the western Serbian city of Valjevo has recently sold several large batches of kits for assembling 122-mm missiles for Grad rocket launcher to Czech company Policske Strojirny, while another defense company Eling has shipped kits for the production of the same missiles, as well as 120-mm mines, to Bulgarian company EMKO.

Precise data on the type and volume of arms and military equipment Serbia has been sending to Ukraine, Israel or other countries is not publicly available. Over the past years, the Serbian Defense Ministry has not been publishing annual reports on the issued export licenses, on its website.