Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic last night accused Ukraine and a member state of the European Union, which he did not name, of being behind a series of false warnings about bomb scares on Air Serbia passenger planes.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, almost fifteen of the company’s planes were forced to return to Belgrade or Moscow due to bomb threats. The airport in the Serbian capital had to be evacuated at least three times. “This is what foreign (intelligence) services of two countries do. One is an EU member state, the other is Ukraine,” Vucic said, without providing any evidence to support his claim.

Serbia, a country that is almost entirely dependent on Russia for its gas and oil supplies, refused to impose sanctions and continues to operate regular flights to and from Moscow. Aleksandar Vucic stressed that the flights will continue “for reasons of principle. We are continuing these flights on grounds of principle because we want to show that we are a free country that makes decisions in a sovereign way. No one will decide on our behalf if we cancel flights,” the Serbian president said. In recent weeks, however, Belgrade has voted three times in favour of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning the Russian military invasion of Ukraine and marked the suspension of Moscow’s participation in the UN Human Rights Council.

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