BELGRADE, May 1. /TASS/. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated that his plan to visit Moscow on May 9 has become a more prominent topic of discussion in EU countries than the conflict in Ukraine or power outages in Europe. The Serbian leader stressed that threats from European Union representatives to impose sanctions over his attendance at the Victory Day parade will not deter him from traveling to Russia.

"They have no other topic. The world is burning, they don’t know what to do with Ukraine, there are blackouts. <...> Imagine if electricity were cut in Serbia for 24 hours. We would be hanged upside down," Vucic was quoted as saying by Vecernje Novosti newspaper.

"Serbia is on the European path and will not stray from it, and I am prepared to face any sanctions. I told [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that I would come to Russia on May 9. A given word binds me - I gave it to my people, to everyone," he concluded.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier described the European Commission’s threats against Vucic over his planned visit to Moscow for the May 9 celebrations as blackmail.