World · Serbia visit · ArchiveZelensky's First Serbia Visit Tests Vučić's Moscow Balancing ActAired August 9, 2026 at 1:39 PM UTCWritten September 7, 2026 at 9:22 PM UTCRead the write-upThis storyTranscript · LOADING0:00Volodymyr Zelensky is making his first0:02official [music] visit to Serbia,0:04sitting down to dinner Friday with0:05President Aleksandar Vučić in [music]0:07Belgrade. The meeting puts Ukraine's0:09wartime leader face-to-face with a0:10president who has tried to keep ties to0:12both Moscow and Kyiv. Serbia has kept0:15[music] close ties with Moscow and0:16refused to impose sanctions since Russia0:18invaded Ukraine in 2022, [music]0:20even while providing a lot of0:21humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the past.0:23Pressure on that balance is now0:25explicit. The Americans have insisted0:27Serbia's Russian majority-owned [music]0:28NIS oil industry must change its0:30ownership structure so Russians are no0:32longer majority owners,0:33>> [music]0:33>> linking energy control to wartime0:35alignment and to the economic security0:37of Serbian households. Zelensky is0:39making [music] this push as Russian0:40strikes intensify and attacks escalate0:43on both sides [music] with diplomacy at0:45a standstill. And as Serbia heads soon0:47toward presidential and parliamentary0:49elections [music] that will test how0:50voters judge the balancing act and how0:52far Vučić can manage Western [music]0:54expectations without breaking Moscow0:55ties. What remains unresolved is whether0:58this first visit moves Serbia beyond1:00humanitarian aid toward political1:01alignment,1:02>> [music]1:02>> whether the US push to end Russian1:04majority ownership of NIS advances, and1:07whether any new support can break the1:08diplomatic standstill while strikes keep1:10escalating for civilians enduring the1:12war.Explore with HeyDexThe shortThe short ↗