Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement that Kyiv does not recognise Kosovo’s independence may have handed his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić a diplomatic win during his visit to Belgrade.
Yet it triggered a sharp backlash in Prishtina, which has demanded that Zelenskyy and Kyiv respect Kosovo's right to self-determination and the 2008 independence declaration recognised by over 100 countries, including key Western powers such as the US, the UK and 22 EU members.
During a press conference in Belgrade on Saturday, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine supports the territorial integrity of its partners and international law, in response to a question on whether Serbia could still "count on Ukraine's firm position" regarding Kosovo's independence.
Despite Prishtina's vocal support for Kyiv in Russia’s all-out war, Ukraine has not formally recognised Kosovo — Serbia's former province whose independence Belgrade does not recognise — a stance Zelenskyy said he affirmed during talks with Vučić last weekend.
"Our position ... remains unchanged. We have always stressed this, and Ukraine's policy has not changed,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine’s stance on Kosovo is partly based on Kyiv's insistence on protecting its own territorial integrity and continuous Russian aggression, a stance further hardened by the Russian initial invasion of Donbas in 2014 and the unilateral annexation of occupied Crimea.
Vučić has repeatedly said Serbia supports Ukraine's sovereignty over all of its lands, including Crimea, despite Belgrade refusing to align with the EU sanctions policy on Russia and maintaining a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Saturday, the Serbian president repeated that his country would continue to support Ukraine’s territorial integrity, including territories seized by Russia since 2014, a position Zelenskyy thanked him for.
Led by strongman Slobodan Milošević, Belgrade spent a decade cracking down on the political rights of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo before tensions escalated into an armed conflict and a campaign of ethnic cleansing in 1998-1999.
A three-month NATO intervention in 1999 led to the withdrawal of Serbian troops and the UN established an executive mandate in the country for nine years, effectively maintaining a protectorate over Kosovo. It also deployed a large NATO-led peacekeeping mission, KFOR.
Kosovo then declared independence in 2008 after the recommendation of Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari passed a UN General Assembly vote.
'Kosovo must be respected'
On Sunday, authorities in Kosovo responded to Zelenskyy's words by stripping down a large Ukrainian flag bearing the slogan "Free Ukraine," which had been hanging in the city's main thoroughfare since early 2022.
"The state of Kosovo must be respected," Prishtina Mayor Perparim Rama said on social media in a post showing a video of the flag being removed.
"When Kosovo is not respected, the capital Prishtina always responds in the same way," Rama added.
Rama further said that Kosovo citizens fully understand other people's struggle for freedom, dignity and the right to exist.
"Our empathy and solidarity will always be with peoples facing war, violence and persecution. Because we, better than many others, know what it means to fight for freedom, dignity and the right to exist as a state," he said.
Kosovo Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca reacted by stating Prishtina "takes note with regret" of Zelenskyy's remarks, while adding that his country would continue to support Kyiv's sovereignty.
He also rejected the argument of territorial integrity as grounds for denying Kosovo's independence.
According to Konjufca, what followed after the 1999 NATO intervention "was not an act of annexation, occupation or territorial conquest, but a comprehensive international process under United Nations administration and years of internationally mediated negotiations on Kosovo’s final status."
Belgrade's balancing act
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Belgrade has sought to balance its relationship with Moscow while furthering ties with the rest of Europe amid its ongoing EU membership bid.
Russia has long been one of Serbia's key diplomatic allies, while the Western Balkan country remains heavily dependent on Russian gas, causing Vučić to tread carefully on the matter over the past four and a half years despite repeated calls from Brussels to openly side with Ukraine.
Vučić made his first official visit to Ukraine in June 2025, attending the Ukraine–South East Europe summit in Odesa.
Unlike the other participants, he declined to sign the joint declaration even though he condemned Russia’s all-out invasion, called for the full withdrawal of Russian forces and reaffirmed support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Moscow has also pointed a finger at Serbia for indirectly supplying arms to Ukraine. Russia’s foreign intelligence service SVR accused Serbia’s defence industry of “stabbing Moscow in the back” in May 2025, a claim Vučić denied.
Belgrade does not publicly supply arms to Ukraine. However, substantial quantities of Serbian-made ammunition have reportedly reached Ukraine through third countries.
The Serbian government has said it neither authorised nor controlled any such transfers.
Vučić said that he and Zelenskyy did not discuss military cooperation during the Ukrainian president's visit over the weekend.
