Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, has warned that Russia is inflaming tensions between his country and Serbia as the war in Ukraine falters. Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo have maintained barricades for over a week, blocking free movement despite US and EU calls for their removal.
On Sunday, members of the Serbian nationalist group Narodne Patrole, linked to the Russian paramilitary Wagner, gathered on the Serbian side of the border, threatening to confront Nato troops. Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, invoked a UN resolution to request permission from Nato to deploy 1,000 police and army personnel, citing the need to protect Serbian communities. This is the first such request since the Kosovo war ended in 1999 and is expected to be rejected.
Kurti expressed concern that the situation could escalate to benefit Vladimir Putin, noting that Russian and Serbian forces conducted 104 joint military exercises in 2021. He said he had agreed to give Nato-led Kfor troops time to persuade those on the barricades to stand down but stressed that the barricades cannot remain indefinitely, as they represent a step towards partitioning Kosovo.
“Our worry is that removal of these barricades cannot exclude casualties,” Kurti said. “We want to be as careful as possible to ensure there will be no destabilisation, but we cannot allow this violation of lawfulness forever.” He added that the EU and US agree the barricades should be removed but are concerned about how Belgrade might exploit the situation, given its links to Moscow.
The standoff was triggered by the arrest of an ethnic Serb former police officer suspected of attacking Kosovan police. The underlying issue remains Serbia’s refusal to recognise Kosovo’s independence, declared in 2008. An EU-mediated Franco-German proposal, offering Serbia fast-track EU membership and financial support in exchange for not blocking Kosovo’s UN accession, was tentatively welcomed by Vučić but later rejected by his deputy, Ivica Dačić, who has close ties to the Kremlin.
