BELGRADE, Serbia

Serbia will not join the NATO military alliance and will instead protect its soil and airspace by itself, said the nation’s president on Monday, campaigning for reelection in the southern city of Vranje. 

"We will protect our children and the future, we have enough soldiers. Our interest is in peace and compromises, but the time of pogroms and persecution is over," Aleksandar Vucic said at a rally of his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

Saying he “fears" what others might bring to Serbia, he added that he believes the people will choose correctly in the general elections set for April 3.

Russia has opposed NATO expansion, and cited it as a reason for the war it launched last month in Ukraine, though Kyiv was not anywhere near joining the military alliance.

Moscow particularly opposes NATO membership for countries with which it shares historic ties of Slavic ethnicity and Easter Orthodox Christianity such as Serbia.

In the Western Balkans region, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania have joined EU and US sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine war. Serbia said it supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity but declined to impose sanctions.

Vucic has served as Serbia’s president since 2017, and is currently seeking a second term, which under the Constitution would be his last.