German press: Vučić in Odessa for Ukrainians, in Moscow for Russians

During their first visit to Ukraine, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić tried to reconcile the irreconcilable, writes the German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".
The first visit of the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić to Ukraine - not only since the beginning of the war, but in general - she surprised all observers, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "Only on the morning of the day of the trip, while Vučić was already on his way, did his cabinet announce that he was traveling to Ukraine. Unlike in previous cases, Vučić did not publicly mention his travel plans in the previous days," reports "Deutsche says".

The reason for the visit, the German newspaper reminds, was the fourth consecutive summit of Ukraine and the countries of South-Eastern Europe, which was held in Odessa. "The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenković, as well as the heads of government, including the newly elected President of Romania Nikusor Dan and the President of Moldova Maja Sanda, were also present. However, the greatest attention was focused on Aleksandar Vučić."

In Odesa without a representative of Kosovo

In Odessa, the President of Serbia had to "reconcile four seemingly incompatible goals", writes Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "To appease Brussels, not anger Moscow, praise Ukraine and at the same time not lose the domestic, Russophile-minded audience, which - as a result of systematic campaigns by the pro-government media in Serbia - sees the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, as an unfortunate victim of historical circumstances."

According to the opinion of the author of the article, Michael Martens, there was a well-founded suspicion that Serbia's policy of balancing between East and West would not be up to the task of coping with such a challenge: "But the President of Serbia managed to solve that task, at least rhetorically, with great skill. Vucic first pointed out that he was 'very grateful to President Zelensky' for welcoming Serbia to Ukraine and emphasized that Belgrade stands for the territorial integrity of all countries recognized by the United Nations. That was carefully chosen wording, because Kosovo - the former province of Serbia that declared independence in 2008 - is not a member of the UN. The main reason for this is that Ukraine does not recognize Kosovo. There was no representative of the Kosovo state at the summit in Odessa."

How will Moscow react?

The article also evaluates: "The fact that Vučić said that the people of Ukraine (he did not speak about the Ukrainian people) deserve support and announced Serbia's readiness to help rebuild the region that Russia systematically bombed, will probably not meet with approval in Moscow and the Putinophile part of the Serbian public. However, the political trader from Belgrade had a wide range on offer, so there was something for Russia as well. Vučić refused to sign the final declaration of the summit, which not only condemned Russia's 'brutal war of aggression', it has already declared the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine as a non-negotiable condition for achieving peace, and even called for Ukraine to join NATO."

At the same time, the Frankfurt newspaper reminds that "since 2022, it has been known that Serbia, through intermediaries, supplies weapons, and especially ammunition, to Ukraine. This was an important reason for Vučić's good relations with the administration of Joe Biden and the former American ambassador in Belgrade, who often praised Vučić to the skies."

"However, for some reason, Russia refrained from criticizing Serbian arms deliveries for a long time. That changed only at the end of May 2025 - which shows that Vučić's constant improvisation and balancing between East and West is reaching its limits. How Moscow will react to Vučić's trip to Odessa remains to be seen. However, it is unlikely that future deliveries of Russian gas to Serbia will become cheaper because of this," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung concludes.