(Bloomberg) -- The next US president needs to push through a truce that would get Russia and Ukraine on board to end the war, according to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who maintains channels to both warring parties.
While that may be hard for Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy to accept, a proposal put forward by the winner of the Nov. 5 election is the only way out of a conflict now well into its third year, according to the Serbian leader.
“Make a truce as soon as possible,” Vucic told Bloomberg in an interview in his Belgrade office on Tuesday. “Then there will be ways to reach long-term peace — but make this first step as soon as possible.”
A halt to the fighting would not only end the bloodshed but would be in the “very best interest of the West,” the Serbian leader said.
Russia has made advances across the frontline in Ukraine this year, securing strategic gains ahead of the closely fought US election, the outcome of which will have consequences for Kyiv’s ability to fight back.
While Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has pledged continued US support, her Republican rival Donald Trump said he would end the conflict if he returns to the White House, even before being sworn in as president. He hasn’t presented any plan yet.
Vucic has long maintained a balancing act between East and West. But he’s scaled back his ties with Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While Serbia hasn’t adopted Western sanctions targeting Moscow, it’s provided aid to Kyiv and condemned the Kremlin’s attack.
Call to Moscow
The conflict also reshaped Vucic’s personal relationship with Putin, whom he met regularly before the war and relied on in geopolitical affairs.
Earlier this month, they spoke directly over the phone for the first time in two and a half years. Vucic called Putin to tell him that he wouldn’t be able to accept his invitation to this month’s summit of the BRICS group in the Russian city of Kazan.
Serbia instead sent four government ministers to what was billed as Russia’s biggest gathering of world leaders since the invasion.
“It’s what gentlemen do, it’s what real men do” in such circumstances, even if the other side expects a different answer, Vucic said of the phone call. “Then I asked him about the situation in Ukraine.”
Vucic, 54, said he broached the subject of a ceasefire, but Putin didn’t appear to be interested.
“All the goals of special military operations, as he said it, will be fulfilled,” the Russian president responded, according to Vucic.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t respond to a question seeking comment. Putin has said previously that a ceasefire is impossible until “the opposing side agrees to take steps that would be irreversible and acceptable” for Russia.
The two presidents also discussed Serbia’s three-year agreement for Russian gas supplies, which expires next year. The Balkan nation of 6.7 million has worked intensely to diversify its gas providers — by adding Azerbijan’s state energy company Socar and opening a new route to a liquefied gas terminal in Greece — but will still need Russia’s Gazprom for the foreseeable future.
“Very soon we’ll have to start discussion, which is not going to be easy,” Vucic said. Once he agrees with Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, next week on available gas volumes, “then we’ll have a clear picture, what we need to do with Russia,” Vucic said.
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