TASS, July 5. Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin refuted reports on Thursday that his country planned to purchase Russia’s S-300 missile systems, according to the Defense Ministry’s website.

"Serbia has a high level of cooperation with Russia, but the news on buying S-300 systems is inconsistent with the reality," the minister said in a statement.

A military and diplomatic source told TASS on Wednesday that Russia had received an official request from Serbia on supplies of S-300PMU-2 missile systems in 2021.

Serbian Prime Minister Alexander Vucic said in April 2017 his country would like to have two battalions and a command point of the Russian antiaircraft missile system S-300 Favorit. Earlier, he said S-300 systems were overly expensive for Serbia but Russia had voiced its intention to help through certain agreements.