By Jonathan Landay and Aleksandar Vasovic
WASHINGTON/BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia, the only country in Europe that has refused to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, has agreed to supply Kiev with weapons or has already sent them, according to a confidential Pentagon document.
The document, a summary of European governments’ responses to Ukraine’s requests for military training and “lethal aid” or weapons, is among dozens of classified documents published online in recent weeks in what could be the most serious leak of US secrets in years. .
Serbia’s Defense Minister Milos Vucevic dismissed the information as “false” in a statement on Wednesday.
“Serbia has not and will not sell weapons to the Ukrainian or Russian side, or to neighboring countries in this conflict,” said Vucevic.
Entitled “Europe | Response to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict,” the Pentagon document in graphic form lists the “assessed positions” of 38 European governments in response to Ukraine’s requests for military assistance.
The chart showed that Serbia has refused to provide training to Ukrainian forces, but has committed to sending lethal aid or has already provided it. It also reports that Serbia had the political will and military capability to supply Ukraine with arms in the future.
The document is marked “Secret” and “NOFORN”, prohibiting its distribution to foreign military and intelligence services. It is dated March 2 and engraved with the seal of the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the document.
In a statement, the Serbian defense minister said there was a possibility that weapons and ammunition made in Serbia could “magically appear” in the conflict, but “this has absolutely nothing to do with Serbia”.
“This is the question for countries that do not respect international norms, contract clauses and commercial practices,” he said, dismissing the intelligence document.
“Someone clearly wants to drag Serbia into this conflict, but we are diligently maintaining our policies.”
President Aleksandar Vucic’s office and the Ukrainian embassy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The Pentagon also did not immediately respond to Reuters queries about the document’s reference to Serbia and previously declined to comment on any of the leaked documents.
TIES WITH RUSSIA
Vucic’s government declared neutrality in Ukraine’s war, despite the country’s deep historical, economic and cultural ties with Russia.
“If this document is accurate, either it shows Vucic’s duplicity towards Russia or he is under enormous pressure from Washington to deliver arms to Ukraine,” said Janusz Bugajski, an Eastern Europe expert at the Jamestown Foundation, a foreign policy think tank.
The Justice Department is investigating the leak, while the Pentagon is assessing the damage done to US national security.
The Pentagon chart divided responses to Ukraine’s requests for help into four categories: countries that pledged to provide training and lethal aid; countries that have already provided training, lethal assistance, or both; countries with the military capability and political will “to provide lethal future aid”.
Austria and Malta were the only two countries marked “No” in all four categories.
The release of the graphic comes just over a month after documents posted on a pro-Russian channel on the messaging app Telegram allegedly showed 122mm Grad ground-to-ground rockets sent to Kiev by a Serbian arms manufacturer in November.
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