Zelensky went to Belgrade for Serbian shells, Politico reports, and restated that Kyiv doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s independence. In Pristina, the ‘Free Ukraine’ banner came down the next day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade on August 8. The visit, and Zelensky’s remarks about Kosovo during it, caused an uproar that is still being felt days later, Politico reported on August 12.

It was Zelensky’s first trip to Belgrade since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Serbia has taken a cautious line on the war: it condemns the invasion but, despite heavy pressure from the European Union, has not given up its economic ties with Moscow and has not joined the bloc’s sanctions. It sends humanitarian and energy assistance to Ukraine while formally refraining from military aid.

After the talks, Zelensky said he and Vučić had discussed “specific things that can add strength to our infrastructure,” as well as bilateral economic cooperation. Asked about Kosovo at a news conference, he confirmed that Kyiv still does not recognize Kosovo’s independence — just as Serbia does not recognize Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory.

Zelensky’s words caused a serious stir in Kosovo itself. The next day, the enormous Ukrainian flag that had hung on a building in central Pristina since 2022 was taken down. “When Kosovo isn’t respected, the capital Pristina always reacts the same way,” Pristina Mayor Përparim Rama said. Kosovo’s foreign minister, Glauk Konjufca, said Pristina “takes note with regret” of Zelensky’s remarks but that it would continue to support Ukraine’s sovereignty.

The dispute over Kosovo’s status escalated further after Zelensky returned to Kyiv, now without his involvement. On August 9, Vučić said Serbia was prepared to consider rerouting the Ibar River, which runs through Serbian territory and replenishes the reservoir serving Kosovo’s largest hydroelectric plant. He called it a response to the Kosovo authorities’ demolition of ethnic Serb homes on the reservoir’s shore.

Albania — a longtime backer of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians are the majority — then weighed into the public dispute. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama accused Serbia of living “in a political bubble” and refusing to acknowledge that it lost control of the region many years ago.

Politico suggested that Zelensky probably had little choice but to wade into one of the Balkans’ thorniest disputes, because he needs to keep weapons flowing from Belgrade. Serbia is a major producer of Soviet-standard ammunition, which Ukraine needs for the howitzers and tanks that do much of the work at the front. Kyiv’s Western allies cannot supply that ammunition.

Belgrade officially sends no weapons to Ukraine. In practice, Politico notes, Vučić supplies the weapons willingly and without much fuss. The Financial Times estimated in 2024 that Serbian ammunition worth 800 million euros had made its way to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war. Formally, though, Serbia sells it only to its European partners, who then re-export it to Ukraine with no involvement from Belgrade.

As early as 2023, Vučić publicly confirmed that Serbia knew its weapons were ending up in Ukraine and had no intention of doing anything about it. “What’s our alternative? Not produce them? Not sell them?” he said at the time.

It was not until two years later, in May 2025, that Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service unexpectedly criticized Serbia because its defense companies were continuing to supply ammunition to Kyiv “despite the ‘neutrality’ officially declared by Belgrade.” The criticism had no consequences for Serbia’s relations with Russia: Vučić only said that he had discussed the matter with Vladimir Putin and had promised to order that contracts not be carried out if Belgrade learned that the end recipient of the weapons would be a party to the war.

After the Belgrade talks, Vučić insisted that military cooperation had not been discussed.