Russian Marina poses for a photo in a hostel of Belgrade, on March 17, 2022. In the weeks following the invasion, Serbia has become a haven for many Russians hoping to escape abroad, with the country providing one of the few regular flights routes into Europe following mass bans across the continent. For centuries, Serbia and Russia have been united by deep fraternal links thanks to their Slavic and Orthodox heritage. And while Serbians have welcomed Russians with open arms, it is not without contradictions. The Russians by and large resettling in Serbia have sought to flee from the catastrophic fallout at home sparked by Putins invasion of Ukraine.
For AFP News Agency
“Everyone from Hungary has tried to help us. They are amazing people,” said Natalia Adamenko, 44, who stayed in one of the church cottages when she first fled Kyiv before moving to a nearby town with her daughter, Kseniia, 17. “I know the Hungarian government is not so loyal, but the actual people are different.”
Aid workers say that since the war broke out, Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party have done little to provide assistance to the roughly 400,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in the country, leaving volunteers, nongovernmental organizations and local governments to piece together a support system for the refugees.
Jeroen van Drunen and his husband, Lennard de Klerk, are two residents of the remote countryside town of Irota who have done just that. They run vacation lodges and, when the war started, decided to register their spare rooms in the upstairs of their home on the website “icanhelp.host,” which connects people fleeing Ukraine with free accommodations.
For NBC News
Borut Pahor President of Slovenia poses for photo in Belgrade, January 2019.
Zorana Mihajlovic is a Serbian politician, and the Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure in the Government of Serbia, she poses for photo in her office after interview for Nedeljnik.
On December 12, 2018, the house of Milan Jovanovic, an investigative journalist for the independent news website ‘’Zig Info’’, was set ablaze at 3:30 am in Vrcin when a Molotov cocktail was thrown through his garage window and unidentified persons fired shots at his front door to prevent the family from leaving the house, local and regional media reported. Mr Jovanovic and his wife were able to escape through the back window and watched as their entire property, including a car, burned down. Jovanovic was not injured, but he claimed that the fire occurred because of his articles targeting the mafia in the municipality of Grocka, 20km from Belgrade. The journalist reported on the “suddenly acquired property” of the head of the local Grocer municipality, as well as alleging corruption in the construction of sewage systems, after which local authorities cut down his water supply.