Serbia has announced the termination of contracts for Russian weapons.

Serbia has terminated a number of contracts for the procurement of Russian weapons that it had been purchasing since the Soviet era.

Source. This was reported in an interview with Novosti by the Chief of the General Staff of the Republic, Milan Mojsilovic, as conveyed by The Moscow Times.

According to him, the reason for this decision was the sanctions against Moscow.

“When it comes to the supply of weapons from the Russian Federation, it is currently practically impossible,” said Mojsilovic. “We are trying to find a solution to the situation through diplomatic channels. We have halted a number of contracts, while some have been postponed, hoping that the situation in international relations will normalize at a global level.”

As the Chief of the General Staff stated, the Serbian army still has the ability to purchase spare parts for Soviet and Russian-made equipment, as these are produced in many countries around the world under license. However, acquiring new equipment from Russia is no longer possible.

Last August, Serbia decided to abandon the purchase of a new batch of Russian fighters that had been discussed since 2021. Instead of Russian-made aircraft, Belgrade acquired 12 French Rafale jets for €2.7 billion, which it plans to use to replace its aging fleet of Russian MiG-29s.

This deal marks the beginning of a radical restructuring of the Serbian Air Force, Mojsilovic acknowledged: pilot retraining, military infrastructure reorganization, and other “complex preparations” will be necessary.

The choice in favor of French fighters was made because they “will provide the necessary capabilities for the Air Force in the long term,” emphasized the head of the Serbian General Staff.

Following Serbia, India— the main buyer of Russian weapons since Soviet times— has virtually ceased new arms purchases from Russia, Bloomberg sources in New Delhi reported. According to them, plans for joint development and production of helicopters and modern fighters have been postponed, and Moscow's offer to lease a nuclear submarine for training an Indian crew has been rejected.

Due to the war, a number of contracts for the supply of Russian weapons abroad have been disrupted, admitted Sergey Chemezov, head of Rostec, last August.

According to SPIRI estimates, Russian arms exports fell by 53% from 2019 to 2023 compared to the previous five-year period. As a result, Russia's share dropped from second to third place in the list of the world's largest arms suppliers. France moved up to second place, having increased its exports by 47% over five years.