Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Monday he “mistakenly” backed a United Nations (U.N.) resolution that condemned Russia for launching the war against Ukraine. Vucic said he actually wanted Serbia’s U.N. delegation to abstain from the vote.
The highly contentious U.N. resolution led to a showdown between the Trump administration and Europe, as the latter insisted on formally condemning Russia for starting the war, while the U.S. introduced a competing resolution calling for immediate peace in Ukraine without assigning blame for the conflict.
The resolution in the U.N. General Assembly to condemn Russia for starting the war passed on Monday by a vote of 93-18. The U.S. was one of the 18 nations to vote against the resolution. Serbia, which has friendly relations with Moscow and opposes sanctions on Russia, surprised U.N.-watchers by voting in favor.
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The resolution, proposed by Ukraine and several European nations, outlined the worldwide damage from Russia’s invasion, disapprovingly noted the presence of North Korean mercenaries in Russia’s service, and called for Russia’s complete withdrawal from Ukrainian territory.
The competing resolution introduced by the U.S. to call for peace without condemning Russia was eventually amended to refer to “Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine” – whereupon the U.S. delegation abstained from voting for it. The second resolution nonetheless passed on Monday as well.
Some thought Serbia’s seeming reversal might have been motivated by a desire to cultivate better relations with Ukraine. Vucic has referred to Ukraine as a “friendly country” and said the areas occupied by Russian troops – including Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014 – should be regarded as sovereign Ukrainian territory.
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Vucic quickly apologized to the Serbian people for the U.N. vote.
“I think Serbia made a mistake today, I apologize to the citizens for that. I take the blame for it myself because I’m probably tired and burdened and can’t get everything done,” he said in an interview with Serbian media Monday.
“As far as the American resolution is concerned, we voted exactly as it should have been. We abstained. We should have abstained, in my opinion, from the European resolution as well,” he continued.
“As you can see, I am saying this at a time when it is quite clear that I will lose favor or political points in the EU because of this. I believe that Serbia had to abstain,” he concluded, anticipating anger among European Union nations at his claim Serbia only voted the same way they did by mistake.
Russia’s reaction to Vucic’s apology was warm and welcoming.
“Of course, we heard it. Of course, we accepted it. Indeed, technical errors do happen and, of course, such a prompt reaction from the head of state is very appealing to us,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
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