22.03.2022.
Statement
The Serbian Armed Forces are fully prepared, trained and equipped to perform their constitutional role and protect the security of our country and its citizens. Therefore, the Ministry of Defence strongly rejects the latest allegations made by the Military Union, which arbitrarily interprets some of the publicly available information in an entirely unfounded and rather malicious manner, trying to tarnish the reputation of the Serbian Armed Forces and disparage evident improvements in the country's overall defence capabilities.
The authors of the Military Union’s statement consciously circumvent the truth, as evidenced by the fact that the implementation of the 2021 Plan for Filling the MOD’s and SAF’s Manning Requirements is 22.54 percent higher than the year before. The number of personnel at the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces increased in 2021 because the influx of personnel was larger than the outflow.
The allegation that four young pilots have left the Air Force and Air Defence since the beginning of the year is completely untrue. Only one pilot's service was terminated at his personal request, without entitlement to a pension, while the remaining three pilots got retired by virtue of law.
The timing of the statement, which is full of inaccurate information, also indicates the Military Union’s malice, since the Ministry of Defence is doing a promotion of enrolment in military schools at the moment, trying to attract as many good candidates as possible.
When it comes to the reputation the Armed Forces enjoy among young people, the best evidence is the fact that in March 2022, we have had the largest number of young applicants for voluntary military service under arms in the last five years, and that more than 90 percent of them expressed a desire to become active duty members.
Yesterday, 152 families of our active duty and retired service members received the keys to new, high-quality apartments in Niš, and today the hand-over of a total of 375 newly built apartments for our service members begins in Belgrade.
All employees at the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces bear witness that their salaries have been significantly increased over the last few years. In just over a year, the salaries of our service members have been increased three times.
Information on the procurement and introduction of new modern combat equipment in our units is also publicly available. Most citizens have had the opportunity to see what our Armed Forces have and can do, and the fact is that they have and can do much more than what could be seen on television.
The Ministry of Defence considers the allegations made by the Military Union of Serbia shameful because they insult the efforts and endeavours of members of the defence system that are both visible and measurable, and their goal is to try to stir up unrest, spreading untruths about defence capabilities of our country.
