Serbia's Vučić visits Ukraine for the first time in EU realignment bid
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is visiting Ukraine on Wednesday, in what marks his first ever trip to the country.
During a one-day trip, Vučić is scheduled to take part in the Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit in Odesa, Serbia's Presidential Office announced.
According to Euronews' European political sources, the Serbian president's participation in the summit signals Serbia's realignment with the EU regarding Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Serbia has positioned itself as neutral when it comes to Russia's war against Ukraine, but Vučić's recent visit to Moscow for Russian President Vladimir Putin's Victory Day parade drew sharp criticism from Brussels regarding Serbia's EU membership bid.
Brussels issued a stark warning, indicating that Vučić's visit to Moscow would violate EU membership criteria and potentially hurt Serbia's accession process to the 27-member bloc.
According to Euronews' European political sources, Vučić's participation in the summit in Odesa and its symbolism should lead to Brussels reopening and expediting Serbia's EU enlargement chapters.
In this context, as a gesture towards Serbia, Ukraine did not invite Kosovo to the summit, the same sources told Euronews.
Just recently, Russia accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, calling it a "stab in the back" from one of Moscow's longest-standing European allies.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) issued a statement claiming that "Serbian defence enterprises, contrary to the 'neutrality' declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv.'
The statement alleged that the export of the Serbian arms to Ukraine was going through NATO intermediaries, "primarily the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria."
"Recently, exotic options involving African states have also been used for this purpose," SVR said.
Vučić denied the accusations, saying that although a contract with the Czech Republic exists, it does not permit exporting Serbian-made materiel to another country.
He also stated Moscow and Belgrade would create a "working group" to establish how Serbian-made weapons reached Ukraine.
The Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit in Odesa will gather representatives from 12 southeastern European countries.
Among them is Romanian President Nicusor Dan, who is making his first trip to Ukraine since winning the May election.
Russia has regularly targeted the port city of Odesa in missile and drone attacks.**
On Tuesday, two people were killed after drone attacks hit residential buildings and medical facilities, including a maternity ward, officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said 13 people had also been injured there.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended his centrist, pro-European government before parliament on Wednesday, seeking to reassert control and rally his fractured coalition after suffering a bitter political defeat.
Tusk requested a vote of confidence in the wake of the loss of Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, a close ally, to conservative Karol Nawrocki in the 1 June presidential runoff.
Backed by US President Donald Trump, Nawrocki is set to replace outgoing President Andrzej Duda, another Law and Justice or PiS party-backed conservative who repeatedly blocked Tusk's reform efforts.
"I am asking for a vote of confidence with full conviction that we have a mandate to govern, to take full responsibility for what is happening in Poland," Tusk, who heads the Civic Platform (PO) coalition, said in Warsaw.
"Anyone who is ready to move forward with me, with the government, and above all with our voters, regardless of these momentary emotions, and build a better Poland, should vote today for a vote of confidence in our government," Tusk said.
The vote, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday afternoon, is widely expected to go in Tusk's favour.
His four-party coalition holds a narrow but stable majority in the 460-seat Sejm, Poland's lower house of parliament.
A loss would trigger the formation of a caretaker government and may open the door for an early parliamentary election.
That could potentially return power to the conservative Law and Justice party, in coalition with the far-right Confederation party, whose candidate placed third in the presidential race.
Tusk had long counted on a Trzaskowski victory to break the institutional deadlock created by Duda's vetoes. Instead, he now faces an incoming president aligned with the nationalist opposition and openly hostile to his government's legislative priorities.
"We cannot close our eyes to reality," he said. "A president who was reluctant to accept the changes we proposed for Poland and our voters is being replaced by a president who is at least equally reluctant to those changes and proposals."
But he also argued that Trzaskowski's narrow defeat indicates that there is continued strong support for those who share his views.
The election result rattled the already uneasy governing coalition, which spans from centre-left to centre-right and has struggled to deliver on key campaign pledges, including liberalising Poland's abortion law and legalising same-sex civil unions.
Tusk acknowledged the growing strains in Wednesday's address.
Many are also blaming Tusk for contributing to Trzaskowski's loss. Much of the criticism has come from within his coalition, as his partners examine whether they are better off sticking with him or risking a collapse of the coalition.
Some are calling for a new prime minister to be selected.
There are questions about what Tusk can realistically achieve before the next parliamentary election, scheduled for late 2027, and whether the coalition will even survive that long amid a surge in popularity for the far right.
Polish media and political analysts are debating whether this might be the 68-year-old Tusk's political twilight.
"I know the taste of victory, I know the bitterness of defeat, but I don't know the word surrender," Tusk said.
As part of his fresh start, he announced plans for a government reconstruction in July that will include "new faces."
He said a government spokesman would be appointed in June, an acknowledgement that the coalition needs a way to present a unified message.
So far Tusk has sought to communicate his policies to the public himself on social media and in news conferences.
Tusk served as Polish prime minister from 2007 to 2014 and then as president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He became Poland's prime minister again in December 2023 in a country hit by the pandemic and inflation and facing significant political divisions.
In a sign of those divisions, half of the parliament hall was empty on Wednesday, with lawmakers from the right-wing PiS party boycotting his speech. Tusk said their absence showed disrespect to the nation.
Most of the power in Poland's parliamentary system rests with an elected parliament and a government chosen by the parliament. However, the president can veto legislation and represent the country abroad.
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