Ukraine war: Serbia uproar over Wagner mercenaries recruiting for Russia The Wagner group's death's-head mural appeared on a wall in Belgrade signed by an extremist group A Russian news video claiming to show Serbian volunteers training to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine has prompted outrage in Serbia, exposing its complex relationship with Moscow. Russia's Wagner mercenary group made the Serbian-language videos to encourage recruitment for the war. Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vucic, reacted angrily on national TV. "Why do you, from Wagner, call anyone from Serbia when you know that it is against our rules?" he said. Critics frequently accuse Serbia of prioritising its long-standing friendship with Russia over its ambition to join the EU. But what has emerged in recent days in Belgrade shows that the picture is not so black and white. Hinting at less-than-rosy relations with Moscow, President Vucic said that not only was Serbia "neutral" regarding the war in Ukraine, but that he had not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin for "many months". It is illegal for Serbians to take part in conflicts abroad. What is Russia's Wagner Group of mercenaries? Tanzanian killed in Ukraine: We told him not to go Russia-supporting Wagner mercenary numbers soar The number of Serbian recruits involved does not appear be significant. Some did fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014, but not with any sort of official endorsement. In fact, Serbian courts convicted more than two dozen people for taking part in "fighting on foreign battlefronts".