—❗️🏥 🇷🇸 NEW: Serbia’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dačić is on mechanical ventilation due to severe pneumonia, and doctors are “fighting for his life,” according to Spasoje Popović, Deputy Director for Pulmonology, who said Dačić is receiving full medical therapy and medications and that ventilation is helping “buy time for the treatments to take effect.”

🔗 Dunav Intel

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇩🇪/🇭🇷 NEW: Data from Germany’s Destatis office show Croatian citizens are now leaving Germany in significantly higher numbers than they arrive, confirming a rumored reverse migration trend.

➡️ Last year just over 11,000 Croatians moved to Germany, while more than 22,000 left, and estimates suggest between 15,000 and 25,000 Croatian citizens returned to Croatia in 2025.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇭🇷/🇷🇸/🇮🇱 NEW: Croatian President Zoran Milanović stated Serbia is purchasing weapons on a massive scale, with Israel integrating the systems via its military industry and security services.

➡️ He made the comments amid Croatia's halt on military cooperation with Israel, urging purchases from NATO allies instead.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇭🇷❌🇮🇱 NOTE: Croatian President ordered a halt and is demanding no arms purchases from Israel, but the government formally controls procurement and has not clearly confirmed a full stop.

➡️ President Zoran Milanović says he terminated all cooperation between the Croatian Armed Forces and the Israeli army (effective since May 2025) and has called on the government to halt all trade in weapons and military equipment with Israel.

➡️ In his official statement, he urged the government to suspend all planned agreements or contracts involving the purchase of weapons and military equipment from Israel, arguing such deals would be unenforceable and harmful to Croatia.

➡️ However, arms procurement is led by the government, and the defense minister has continued engagement with Israeli industry, including talks in Tel Aviv on systems for Croatia’s Leopard tanks, showing a clear institutional clash rather than a fully aligned national policy.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🪖🇭🇷 NEW: Croatia's Ministry of Defense has issued 700 summonses for mandatory military service so far, with only 1% of recipients invoking conscientious objection.

➡️ Service officially begins March 8.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—Balkan Spectator has correspondents on the ground in three countries: Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria.

These correspondents are people who occasionally or regularly share information and exclusive materials with us.

At Balkan Spectator we are proud to see that these committed citizens choose to share their information with us.

If you want to be a correspondent, just reach out!

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—⚽️🇷🇸 WATCH: Red Star Belgrade supporters unveiled a large-scale choreography honoring 12th century ruler Stefan Nemanja during tonight’s UEFA Europa League match, depicting him as unifier of Serbian lands and defender of Orthodoxy, later canonised as Saint Simeon, one of the most revered saints in Serbian history.

🔗 Based Serbia

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🛢🤝🇭🇺/🇷🇸/🇸🇰 NEW: Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said that once MOL completes its purchase of Serbian oil company NIS, the oil markets of Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia will operate in a coordinated way, increasing their resilience to political pressure such as current transit disputes with Ukraine.

➡️ The planned integration of refineries in Bratislava, Százhalombatta and Pančevo is presented by Budapest as a major step to strengthen Central Europe’s energy security and lessen vulnerability to external leverage.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

‼️🇷🇸/🇽🇰 URGENT: Former diplomat Nebojša Vujović has publicly claimed that Serbian FM Marko Đurić was presented in Washington with a secret, binding US‑backed agreement for Serbia to recognize Kosovo’s independence, saying Serbia is moving “step by step” toward formal recognition.

➡️ Belgrade officials have denied his allegation and no institution has confirmed such a deal exists.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

🌹✔️🏳️‍🌈 President of the Social Democrat Party (PSD), Sorin Grindeanu wants to legalize gay marriages done abroad once he becomes prime-minister!

As of now, if a homosexual couple gets married in a different country and then comes back to Romania, the marriage cannot be recognised. However, Grindeanu and his new colleagues who allegedly "switched from progressism to conservatism" now want to legalize such legal loopholes.

The Constitution of Romania clarifies that a marriage is an consented union between a man and a woman. Grindeanu's attempt to apply put the CEDO decision into practice will be highly unconstitutional.

@Wallachian_Gazette

—🇷🇺❌🇺🇦 WATCH: A Romanian civilian filmed the moment a Russian Shahed suicide drone was shot down over the Danube during an attack on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, with the interception occurring opposite Romanian territory across the river.

🔗 Visegrád 24

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🚆🇭🇺/🇷🇸 NEW: The first freight train has departed on the modernized Budapest–Belgrade railway, marking the start of freight operations on the upgraded Hungary–Serbia line, a flagship project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative and touted as the fastest rail corridor between Central Europe and the Port of Piraeus in Greece.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English