“Why are you, the Wagners, approaching someone from Serbia when you know it’s against our regulations?” Vucic was angry, according to Reuters, in an interview with Serbian television Happy TV on Monday.
The accusation that the Wagners have their office directly in Serbia was denied by the local president in a television interview, according to Reuters.
Wagner’s group functions as a private army. It gets involved in armed conflicts, while Russia uses it to do work that for some reason it does not want to entrust to the regular army, similar to how Americans entrust various tasks abroad to contractors like the Blackwaters company. The Wagners are considered extremely cruel, but reliable and feared fighters. They also accept convicts into their ranks, often in exchange for a promise of mercy. They are also participating in the invasion of Ukraine, according to the latest reports, they have been involved in bloody battles for the city of Soledar in the Donetsk region in the east of Ukraine in recent days.
The Wagners are recruiting in Serbia
Europe
Similar to Czech laws, Serbian laws prohibit citizens from fighting in armed conflicts abroad without permission. Several Serbs have already been convicted for this in the past. In Ukraine, however, Serbs have been fighting since the outbreak of the civil war and the conflict with Russia after the so-called Maidan in 2014.
In addition, at the beginning of this year, advertisements began to appear luring Serbs directly to the Wagner family. Serbia’s Press Council confirmed that a report appeared on the Balkan site Russia Today about an advertisement in which Wagner’s group was offering a “job” in Russia; On January 5, a text was published on it: “The Wagners have published an ad that they are looking for volunteers; the conditions are more than tempting.”
The text on Russia Today quotes a recruitment ad from the official website of the Wagner group and also states: “It is clear to those interested from the start that all those who apply will be sent directly to the special military operation zone.” This is how Russia marks its aggressive war.
Serbia has repeatedly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations and on other occasions, yet it is, together with Hungary, considered Moscow’s main ally in Europe. Takes Russian gas and defies sanctions.
Kosovo Serbs have begun removing barricades in northern Kosovo
Foreign
