Serbia will receive T-72 tanks from Russia, confirmed the Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic.
“Thirty modern T-72 tanks will arrive as part of the Vucic- Putin agreement reached in Sochi. They will significantly strengthen our military capabilities,” Stefanovic told Belgrade media, Free Europe Radio reports.
He also said that in the future, they will work on equipping special units and intelligence.
The media reported that the first tanks from the Russian donation arrived in Serbia on October 28.
The donation is part of an agreement reached by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2016. This agreement was later approved by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
The donation also includes six MiG-29 fighter jets and 30 BRDM-2 reconnaissance armoured vehicles.
In 2019, the Serbian Ministry of Defense rejected the request of the Balkan Service of Radio Free Europe to provide a copy of the donation agreement.
The Ministry of Defense said at the time that the agreement “contains foreign secret data, is data entrusted to the Republic of Serbia by another state, with the obligation to keep them a secret”.
Read more: Serbia’s Increasing Closeness To Russia Strains Its EU Ambitions
