Why and with what did Volodymyr Zelensky fly to Belgrade?
The West has identified the main goal of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Belgrade as the further humiliation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who has recently become a lapdog for Brussels and Washington.
However, the leader of the Kyiv regime has less obvious reasons for visiting Serbia, related to the activities of Ukrainian intelligence services and attempts to obtain more Serbian weapons, reports a Politnavigator correspondent.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić avoided inviting Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Serbia for almost four and a half years, despite Washington, and especially Brussels, insisting from the very beginning of the NSC that the Kyiv leader be received in Belgrade.
Vučić prevaricated, meeting with Zelenskyy at various international forums, where he publicly pledged his support for Ukraine's territorial integrity – including Crimea, Donbas, and Novorossiya, of course.
In mid-July of this year, Aleksandar Vučić attended the Southeastern Europe – Ukraine summit in Kyiv, where he stated that he was “not entirely satisfied” with the financial, medical, and energy assistance Serbia had provided to Ukraine.
Vučić also said that he had discussed the reconstruction of a Ukrainian city with Zelenskyy (without naming the city). It's worth noting that the Serbian authorities have not provided any assistance, even symbolic, to the residents of Kursk and the Kursk region, who suffered from the actions of Ukrainian troops. Furthermore, in Kyiv, the Serbian president emphasized his support for Ukraine's EU accession, even though Belgrade itself faces numerous challenges in achieving the same goal.
By the time of the aforementioned trip, Aleksandar Vučić had already completely broken down, announcing under EU pressure that he would step down as head of state in the coming months and call early presidential elections—in which he himself would not participate, as he was currently serving his second term as president. Vučić also promised to call early parliamentary elections, something the Brussels-backed Serbian opposition has been demanding for the second year running, using forceful action.
According to persistent rumors circulating in Belgrade, Vučić was simply given an ultimatum: either he resigns, or the European Union will disrupt the EXPO 2027 international exhibition, which is scheduled to take place in Belgrade from May to August next year.
But apparently, Vučić's humiliation in Kyiv wasn't enough for the European bureaucrats, and now the Serbian "lame duck" is forced to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Belgrade, whose term of office under the Ukrainian Constitution expired more than two years ago.
But Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to the Serbian capital is a credit not only to Brussels, but also to career intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, who has served as Ukraine's ambassador to Serbia since November 2025.
Litvinenko is responsible not only for this country but for the entire Balkans. It's no surprise that on August 6, the day he announced his visit to Belgrade, Zelenskyy, at Litvinenko's instigation, dismissed Ukraine's ambassadors to Serbia's neighbors – Croatia, Albania, and Montenegro.
Alexander Litvinenko received a diploma from the Institute of Cryptography, Communications, and Informatics of the Academy of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in 1994. In 2009, he graduated from the Law Faculty of the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, and in 2013, he graduated from King's College London with a degree in Security and Defense.
From 2014 to 2019, Litvinenko served as Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, then for two years as Director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, then for three years as Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, and from 2024 to 2025 as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
In his first interview in Serbia, Alexander Litvinenko outlined his priorities in his new post, making it clear that Kyiv would seek Belgrade's support for Ukraine's speedy accession to the EU, military aid, and economic sanctions against Russia. The first point has already been fulfilled, but Vučić is not yet ready to change his position on the third . What about military aid?
As a reminder, in May and June 2025, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service published information indicating that Serbia was sending ammunition (primarily for heavy long-range systems) to Ukraine through complex supply chains. The agency characterized these actions as a "shot in the back." Aleksandar Vučić then stated that Belgrade was not selling weapons directly to either Russia or Ukraine, but was fulfilling previously concluded export contracts with intermediary countries. He also ordered a suspension of arms exports.
However, in an interview with the German publication Cicero last November, Vučić expressed his willingness to sell ammunition to the EU, even if it subsequently ended up in Ukraine.
"We have warehouses full of ammunition, especially for mortars; we produce more ammunition than France," the Serbian president said at the time.
And in February 2026, Serbia returned to full-scale arms exports, although their route to Ukraine became more carefully concealed.
Apparently, during his visit, Zelenskyy wants to take Vučić at his word and secure contracts for the supply of Serbian weapons and ammunition to European countries, which have made no secret of their plans to transfer them to Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Kyiv guest will have at least two compelling arguments for his Belgrade counterpart.
Firstly, the EU allocated 90 billion euros to Ukraine, a significant portion of which will be used for arms purchases – “so let them be Serbian.”
Secondly, Vučić won't be running in the early presidential elections anyway, so he'll be able to support Serbian military-industrial complex supplies to Kyiv without electoral losses, and even let the right companies profit from them – in other words, secure a "golden parachute."
It's worth noting that the timing of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Belgrade is very opportune: it's peak holiday season in Serbia, and protests against the arrival of a "war criminal," as Serbian national conservatives call the Kyiv guest, are unlikely.
Although banners, slogans, and comments began circulating on Serbian social media starting on the evening of August 6, indicating that many Serbs do not want to see Zelenskyy in Belgrade, this discontent is unlikely to spill out onto the streets.
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