Vučić: Paunović's statement does not reflect my will or Serbia's policy

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić assessed that the statement by the Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Snežana Paunović, does not reflect his will or the will of the Serbian Government, and that the state's policy is dialogue, never ethnic cleansing.

"Careless and insufficiently responsible. Such statements should not be made in public and it is not a policy, neither mine nor that of the Serbian government, it is ours to say it clearly," Vučić told reporters in Kiev, where he is attending the Southeast Europe - Ukraine Summit.

Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government Snežana Paunović stated that if she had been "in Slobodan Milošević's place in 1998, she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo."

Kosovo authorities have permanently banned Paunović from entering Kosovo, and she has been declared persona non grata, a decision made by Kosovo's Minister of Internal Affairs, Dželjalj Svečlja.