'I was tired' — Serbia's president apologises for accidentally backing Ukraine's UN resolution

Serbia erroneously voted in favor of a Ukrainian resolution at the U.N. General Assembly calling Russia an aggressor state, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Feb. 24, RTS reported.

The U.N. General Assembly approved the resolution on Feb. 24 condemning Russia's full-scale invasion, with 93 countries voting in favor and 18 against, including the U.S.

Serbia was supposed to abstain from voting on the Ukrainian resolution, Vucic said.

"I believe that Serbia made a mistake today. I apologize to the citizens of Serbia for that, and I take the blame for that because I was probably tired and overwhelmed," he said.

"I didn't have time to deal with this (issue) enough, maybe I'm too tired, maybe I have too many things (to deal with)... I don't think we should pander to any power, neither Russians nor Americans. I think it was in the interest of the state of Serbia. Unfortunately, it didn't happen," he added.

Serbia maintains a friendly attitude toward Russia and has refused to join international sanctions against Moscow in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, Vucic has called Ukraine a "friendly country" and previously affirmed that Crimea and Donbas are Ukrainian sovereign territories.

Vucic expected his vote error would also result in him "losing favor or political points in the EU."

The Ukrainian resolution explicitly names Russia as the aggressor state and demands the complete withdrawal of troops.

The American version of the resolution did not explicitly mention Russia as an aggressor, but after amendments from the EU countries, the document included the wording "Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine." The U.S. abstained from voting after these changes, while Russia opposed it.

Both resolutions were adopted.