Serbian National Assembly Speaker Dacic: Ukraine is collateral damage of pressure by the West

President of the National Assembly Ivica Dacic has told Tanjug that Ukraine is collateral damage of incitement by the West to go to war with Russia, adding that Serbia has taken the right stance, because it supported Ukraine's territorial integrity, and did not impose sanctions on Russia.

He assessed that this position of Serbia is the only rational solution and that this decision is completely in line with the interests of our country and people.

Dacic explained that the current events in Ukraine are a consequence of NATO moving closer to Russia's borders, which made Russia feel threatened, and Moscow has been warning that there could be an armed response.

"Ukraine was naive to get drawn into a conflict and it was better to have negotiated with Moscow in time," Dacic said and stressed that the peoples of the two countries at war are suffering because of the interests of others.

According to him, there are two key problems underlying the situation in Ukraine - the relationship between Russia and Ukraine and NATO's stance towards Russia.

Dacic said that Western powers look exclusively at their own interests, and stressed that it is in the interest of the West for someone to be at war with Russia, so long as it is not them.

Therefore, he thinks that it is not in the interest of the EU and NATO to help Ukraine, and that they will not interfere in the war between the two countries. According to Dacic, there will be no Third World War, instead, everything will be finished at the local level.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to negotiations, and Dacic commented in a statement for Tanjug that it is best for the two countries to solve their problems on their own without the interference of other powers.

He believes that the relationship between the two countries is complicated and that negotiations between the two opposing sides will not be easy.

He recalled the Minsk agreement between Russia and Ukraine, that determined the line of separation and was supposed to guarantee that no hostile actions would take place. Dacic pointed out that Russia was warning Ukraine because it was violating that agreement.

Dacic also pointed out that the West did not respond to Russia's proposal to reach a security agreement.

When it comes to Serbia's position regarding Ukraine, Dacic said that he and Vucic were in agreement when it comes to the decision taken by Serbia's Council for National Security.

"We've made the best possible decision to support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, but we cannot impose sanctions on Russia, which has been representing our country's interests for years and did not impose sanctions on Serbia when Western powers did," said Dacic.

The West was pressuring Serbia to take a stance on the issue of Ukraine as soon as possible, said Dacic, although it took the US two years to present its position during the Second World War and decide whether to side with Hitler or Churchill.

According to the president of the Assembly, even if Serbia imposed sanctions on Russia, it would not have gotten any guarantees that it would become a member of the European Union, nor that the position of Western countries on the issue of Kosovo would change.

He said that Serbia should prioritize exclusively its own interests.

"We have only one interest, and that is Serbia. It's not our job to act the way that the West expects from us and impose sanctions, nor to praise Russia and recognize everything they have done, and recognize everything they have additionally recognized. It is not our role to wage war with Russia or Ukraine, nor to support one against the other, but to see what's best for us," said Dacic.

He also commented on Croatia's position that "Serbia should take the right side" and said that Serbia has always been "on the opposite side of Croatia, because they were always on the wrong side" - recalling that in previous wars Croatia sided with Austro-Hungarians and (Nazi) Germany.

Speaking about the consequences of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Dacic said that it is inevitable that this situation will affect the global economy, but that our country is stable, both in the financial market and in when it comes to healthcare and the food industry, so there is no reason to worry.

"We have survived sanctions in Serbia, we will survive sanctions in Russia. Serbia has no reason to worry about the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine," Dacic said.

(Telegraf.rs)