Serbia's president on Sunday said he wanted to avoid the "confiscation" of Russian shares in Serbian oil company NIS "at all costs", as his country seeks an exit from crippling US sanctions.

Washington sanctioned Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), which is majority-Russian-owned, as part of its crackdown on Russia's energy sector after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The sanctions have hit hard in Serbia, which analysts say is on the brink of a winter energy crisis, with the country's lone oil refinery facing a potential shutdown.

Serbia had negotiated several postponements to the sanctions, but the US Treasury Department began applying them on October 9, and American authorities have now told Serbia that all Russian shareholders must exit the company for the sanctions to be lift

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