The flag came down from a building in central Prishtina on 9 August, Mayor Përparim Rama said in a Facebook post, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remarked on Kosovo during his visit to Serbia. Rama said "the state of Kosovo must be respected."

"Our compassion and solidarity will always be on the side of peoples facing war, violence, and persecution," Rama wrote. "Because we, better than many others, know what it means to fight for freedom, dignity, and the right to exist as a state."

What Zelenskyy said in Belgrade

The exchange was reciprocal: Zelenskyy reaffirmed Ukraine's refusal to recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, while Vučić reiterated Serbia's backing for Ukraine's territorial integrity, including Crimea.

At the 8 August joint news conference in Belgrade, Zelenskyy said Ukraine's position had not shifted. "Our position on what you said, about the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence, remains unchanged," he said. "We have always emphasized this, and Ukraine's policy has not changed. Likewise, we are grateful to our partners for respecting Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, including, of course, Crimea's belonging to Ukraine. This position of Serbia is also unchanged, including in the UN General Assembly."

Vučić's position

Vučić, in turn, tied his support for Ukraine's territorial integrity to Serbia's own stance on Kosovo. "We support the UN Charter, UN resolutions, and that means the territorial integrity of all UN members, which means the territorial integrity of Ukraine as well," he said. "Likewise, we are very grateful to Ukraine for supporting the territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia. And as far as we are concerned, we will continue this principled policy. There are no 'buts' about this. This is being stated very clearly and firmly now."

Kosovo's recognition status

Kosovo is a partially recognized state on the Balkan Peninsula, in the Kosovo and Metohija region, with a population of about 1.7 million, according to Suspilne. Its capital and largest city is Prishtina. Kosovo is recognized by 22 of the European Union's 27 member states. Ukraine does not recognize Kosovo's independence.

A combat drone exploded near a village on Moldova's border with Ukraine on 9 August, sparking a grass fire but hurting no one, Moldovan police said. Investigators recovered fragments and will examine them to establish the drone's type and origin. It was one of two blasts the war pushed across Europe's borders in two days, with Bulgaria fielding a separate drone explosion and summoning Ukraine's ambassador.

A drone down in a Moldovan field

The blast rang out around 13:20 near Crocmaz, in Moldova's Ștefan Vodă district in the southeast, and set dry grass alight, NewsMaker reported. The village lies on the Dniester, upstream of Ukraine's Dniester estuary.

Firefighters and patrols confirmed no civilians were hurt and no homes were damaged. Police found fragments that they preliminarily identified as parts of a combat drone. Those pieces will undergo a ballistic-technical examination to determine the drone's exact type, its affiliation, and how it fell. Crocmaz sits right on the Ukrainian border. The district council posted photos of the object and told residents to avoid the cordoned area and report any fragments to the 112 line.

The blast came amid an assault on Odesa

The drone fell hours after Russia hit Odesa with missiles and drones overnight on 9 August. Much of Moldova's eastern border runs along Odesa Oblast, so wreckage from the war often drifts across. Russian drones have crashed on Moldovan soil during such attacks before. Whether this one was Russian or something else is for the examination to show.

A parallel case in Bulgaria

Also today, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine's ambassador, Olesia Ilashchuk, over a drone that exploded on 8 August near the Romanian border, by a Trans-Balkan gas pipeline compressor station, Bulgarian National Television reported. Its defense bloc said the drone was likely a Ukrainian decoy, with no sign it was launched on purpose. 

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his first official visit to Serbia, meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade on 8 August 2026, according to Ukraine's Presidential Office. The two agreed to deepen trade and energy cooperation, and Serbia pledged fresh humanitarian aid and help rebuilding a war-hit Ukrainian city.

The visit drew attention because Serbia remains one of the few European states still close to Moscow. At the same time, Serbia is itself seeking EU membership and backs Ukraine with financial and humanitarian aid, though it provides no direct military support.

A first visit, and a message to two capitals

Zelenskyy arrived in Belgrade on Friday, 7 August, and the next day received an honor guard welcome, then met Vučić at the Presidential Palace. It was his first official trip to Serbia since he became president in 2019. Ukraine's First Lady had made her own first trip to Belgrade in May 2024.

Serbia is a candidate for accession to the EU, and so is Ukraine. Belgrade also keeps close ties with Moscow and still refuses to sanction it, relying on Russia for most of its energy. Thus the reception sent a signal to both Brussels and Moscow. 

Vučić said Serbia upholds the UN Charter and the territorial integrity of every UN member, including Ukraine. At the joint news conference, Zelenskyy tied that to Crimea belonging to Ukraine, and he said Ukraine's stance against recognizing Kosovo's unilateral independence stays unchanged. Russia has occupied the Crimean peninsula since 2014.

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Aid for the winter and a city to rebuild

Zelenskyy thanked Serbia for a new humanitarian package in the medical and energy sectors, his office said. Belgrade offered to help rebuild one war-damaged Ukrainian city, which neither side named. The two leaders discussed the coming winter, when Ukraine's power system faces heavy Russian strikes. Serbia has sent Ukraine generators and financial support before.

The leaders discussed infrastructure, ports, railways, and food security, and Serbia showed interest in Ukraine's railway experience. They want to finalize a free-trade agreement between the two countries by the end of 2026. Trade reached about $346 million in the first half of 2026, after $442 million for all of last year, according to Zelenskyy's office. In the presidents' presence, Ukraine's food-safety service and Serbia's agriculture ministry signed a cooperation memorandum on animal health and food safety. 

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An EU path, and Vučić's doubts

Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine would welcome a faster EU path for Serbia. Vučić said Serbia backs Ukraine's European course and will not block it, but he doubted Serbia could join soon, "for many political reasons." 

He said not everyone in the EU views membership for Ukraine or the Western Balkans positively. 

"For us they'll find Croats, Bulgarians, Dutch, and for Ukraine they'll find someone else," he said, suggesting that for any candidate, some existing EU member can always be found to object to its accession.

Ukraine's drone forces burned a long-range Russian S-400 air-defense system on the Black Sea coast and knocked out more air defenses, radars, and cargo ships in a single overnight raid, Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi said. One of the struck batteries guarded the stretch of coast in the area of Putin's reported seaside palace. 

The battery that guarded Putin's coast

Overnight on 8–9 August, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces struck the S-400 Triumf system at Gelendzhik, on Russia's Krasnodar Krai coast of the Black Sea. The 413th Reid Regiment carried out the strike, and the position burned for three hours beside seaside catacombs, Brovdi wrote. Brovdi said the battery had fired six missiles on the morning of 8 August, between 9:25 and 12:51.

Gelendzhik sits on the Black Sea headland that holds the palace complex, long reported as Putin's private residence. 

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The regiment that torched the Gelendzhik battery had hunted these launchers before. Overnight on 6 July, during a Russian mass strike on Ukraine, the 413th Reid operators found and destroyed an S-400 launcher in Bryansk Oblast, the unit said. That launcher was firing ballistic missiles at ground targets. The regiment called Bryansk a standard launch area for ballistic missiles aimed at Kyiv, and said the strike saved Ukrainian civilian lives.

Four more systems down inside Russia

Ukrainian drones destroyed four more Russian air-defense assets the same night, all on Russian soil, Brovdi said. Crews hit a Tor system in Rostov Oblast and a Pantsir-S1 point-defense system at Yeysk in Krasnodar Krai. They also struck two radar stations in Rostov Oblast, the Podlyot-K1 and the Kasta 2E2. The 1st Separate Center of the drone forces ran the inland strikes, the Unmanned Systems Forces reported.

Three shadow-fleet ships hit at sea

At sea, the SBS drone pilots hit three vessels of Russia's shadow fleet in the Black Sea — one oil tanker and two dry-cargo ships. That fleet is the aging tankers and cargo ships that move Russian oil around Western sanctions. The 413th Reid Regiment and the 412th Nemesis Brigade carried out the strikes.