https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ne-war-falters
Kosovo PM says Russia is inflaming Serbia tensions as Ukraine war falters
Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, has warned of Russia inflaming tensions between his country and Serbia due to the war in
Ukraine faltering, as Belgrade took its first step in deploying troops to the region.
Ethnic Serbs in northern
Kosovo, where they are in the majority, have had barricades set up for more than a week, preventing the free movement of the Kosovan authorities, despite US and EU calls for the illegal road blocks to be dismantled.
A large group of members of the Narodne Patrole, a Serbian nationalist organisation with ties to the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, had also massed on Sunday on the Serbian side of the Serbia-Kosovo border threatening to confront Nato troops.
With the risk of violent clashes growing, Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, used his right under a UN resolution to ask Nato for permission to send 1,000 police and army personnel, citing a need to protect Serbian communities. Serbia’s request on Friday, the first since the Kosovan war ended in 1999, will almost certainly be rejected, but the concern will be that it could be the first step towards a unilateral decision to deploy.
Kurti said he was anxious the tense situation could escalate to the advantage of Vladimir Putin with Russian and Serbian forces having conducted 104 joint military exercises in 2021. The Kosovan leader added that he had agreed to give Nato-led troops, known as Kfor, time to persuade those on the barricades to stand down but that they could not be allowed to remain much longer.
He described the barricades as a step towards partitioning the country, which has been independent from Serbia since 2008.
“Our worry [is] that removal of these barricades cannot exclude casualties,” he said. “And that’s why we want to be as careful as possible to make sure that there will be no destabilisation and relative peace and security will be in place. However, we cannot allow this violation of lawfulness and constitutionality for ever. So, yeah, this must end, sooner the better.”…….