Last week we detailed that during Ukrainian President Zelensky's visit to Albania where he appealed for more weapons from Balkan countries, he pushed the idea that all Western-friendly Balkan states should have a pathway to the EU and NATO. And at the same time French President Emmanuel Macron has been busy floating the possibility of Western troops deploying to Ukraine.

Albania is of course a chief regional rival to Moscow's close ally and friend Serbia. Jahja Muhasilovic, a political analyst on the Balkans, had commented of Zelensky's rare Balkan trip that "Albania is known to be one of the staunchest supporters of limiting Russia's influence here in the region."

"In a way, Zelensky's visit in Albania is having that geopolitical connotation. He is probably counting on the Western Balkan countries not to help them militarily because they are limited, but through their lobbying part that they can play in continuing the armament of the Ukrainian troops," he explained.

In fresh comments this weekend, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has weighed in and responded to ongoing calls from Western officials to urgently send more weapons to Kiev. Vucic has accused the West of pursuing a policy of "total militarization" toward defeating Russian, which puts the region and the world on the brink of disaster and stumbling to WW3.

"What is happening now is madness," he was cited in regional media as saying. "They all thought that Putin would be easily defeated. Now they see that this is not so."

"The current trend is toward total militarization and a five-fold build-up in all respects," the Serbian president said further during a visit to the Belgrade Military Technical Institute.

Vucic has also warned against European countries sending their troops to Ukraine to confront Russian forces, saying this would immediately and unpredictably escalate the war.