Serbia has not requested S-300PMU-2 Favorit air and missile defense systems from Russia, the Serbian Defense Ministry said in a statement, published on its official website.
Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said that even though Serbia has “excellent cooperation” with Russia, the information about the requested purchase of the S-300 missiles was not true.
In 2017 Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that his country was ready to buy the S-300 from either Russia or Belarus.
“We have no agreement on the S-300. I brought the matter up[ during my talks with President Putin. I have also talked this over with [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko,” Vucic said.
On Wednesday Russian media quoted military-diplomatic sources as saying that Russia had received a request to supply two batteries of S-300PMU-2 missile systems to Serbia by 2021.
On Thursday, Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation said that delivery of Russian S-300 air defense systems to Serbia is not on current agenda of bilateral relations.
"We reviewed the publications circulated in some Russian media outlets on the topic of 'Serbia sent Russia an official request for the delivery of S-300 [air defense systems] in 2021.' We state that this topic is not on the agenda of Russian-Serbian relations in the area of military-technical cooperation," the service said in a statement.
This system is capable of shooting down tactical ballistic missiles moving at athe speed of 2.8 kilometers a second (1.7 miles) up to 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) away.
The S-300PMU-2 missile systems have earlier been acquired by China, Algeria and Azerbaijan.
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