It was “stupid” of the West to underestimate Russia’s military and economic might, Aleksandar Vucic has said
FILE PHOTO: Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. © Getty Images / Anadolu
Moscow and Kiev will eventually stop fighting, but the conflict is likely to end in a ‘Korean scenario’ stalemate, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said. He argued that the sides will likely be unable to find a fundamental solution to the conflict for decades to come.
The term ‘Korean scenario’ refers to the aftermath of the war on the eponymous peninsula in the 1950s which ended in an armistice and the formation of two separate states – North and South Korea. Under such a scenario open hostilities are suspended but the sides are unable to agree on a peaceful resolution.
According to Vucic, a version of this scenario is the most likely outcome of the standoff between Moscow and Kiev.
“There can be no peace because the Russians now have a psychological advantage on the battlefield… In the end, there will be a conflict freeze, the Korean scenario will be reached, and it will not have a final solution for 10, 20 or 30 years,” he told Serbian news outlet Informer on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.
Vucic said the Korean scenario is the best solution to the conflict that the West can hope for, as American opinion polls indicate that public support for Washington’s Ukraine policy has been rapidly fading.
“America will fight hard against Russia in Ukraine, but it will also look after its own interests,” the Serbian leader argued. He added that the West made a mistake in “underestimating” Russia and betting on Kiev to win.
“Russians now, with all the problems and difficulties they have… they showed that they are tougher than everyone expected. I’m talking about the economy, it was stupid to underestimate it,” he said, referring to the unprecedented sanctions the West placed on Moscow in response to the conflict.
Many experts have noted that Russia has not only withstood the sanctions pressure, but has managed to expand economically, while the sanctions backfired on many Western states. Vucic also said the West was “terribly stupid to underestimate the Russian army,” because whoever has done that before, “we know how they went down in history.”
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Serbia’s official stance on the Ukraine conflict is neutral. It has refused to sanction Moscow despite strong pressure from the US and EU, though it supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity and views it as a friendly nation. Vucic previously claimed that Serbia has donated more humanitarian aid to Kiev than the other Balkan states combined.