Cyprus Sells 11 Russian-Made Mi-35 Combat Helicopters to Serbia
Cyprus has sold 11 Russian-made Mi-35 combat helicopters to Serbia. This was announced by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. He did not disclose the price, according to Reuters and Seenews.
Vucic explained that in this way Serbia is trying to strengthen its air force and maintain regional military superiority.
In 2021, the Cypriot government and Serbia agreed to purchase outdated Mi-35s in need of major repairs, part of which Belgrade paid for through the export of Serbian-made weapons.
"We have paid more than half of our Cypriot brothers with our weapons, mainly artillery," Vucic told reporters at a presentation at the Batajnica military airbase near Belgrade.
He also announced the sale of 48 Serbian-made self-propelled howitzers worth a total of 311 million euros ($339 million) to an unknown country. "This procedure still has to go through their parliament," Vucic said.
According to Reuters, Serbia, which is a candidate for European Union membership and has one of the largest armies in the Western Balkans, still relies on former Soviet military technology. In recent years, however, it has begun to buy Western and Chinese weapons systems and aircraft.
In June, Vucic said that Belgrade was in talks to buy Rafale fighter jets from French company Dassault. Serbia has already bought Airbus helicopters and transport aircraft.
Serbia is militarily neutral, but has joined NATO's Partnership for Peace programme for countries that do not seek to join the alliance.
It is also known that Belgrade curtailed military cooperation with Moscow after Russia attacked Ukraine and condemned the invasion. However, unlike the EU and other Western countries, Serbia has not imposed sanctions against Moscow.
As The Gaze previously reported, in October, journalists found out that Serbian citizens were being recruited into the Russian armed forces to replenish personnel depleted during the fighting in Ukraine.
This was facilitated by the fact that after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin passed several laws aimed at attracting foreign nationals to its military ranks.