Kosovo

The leadership in Belgrade accuses Kosovo's government of plotting “terrorism against Serbs” in Serb-populated northern Kosovo. The Serbian government and ...

In Serbia, the extreme right is knowingly under full control of the Vucic regime, and no Wagner members could enter the country without the approval of the regime. Since Russia’s armed forces are overstretched and incompetent, Putin may turn to the Wagner Group. “Putin wants to delegitimise and dismantle Kosovo, which he views as a US project. And I don’t see why Vucic should give up his long-pursued policy of balancing between West and East.” Phillips served as a senior adviser and foreign affairs expert at the US State Department during the Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama administrations. Kosovo’s Serb minority sees the ethnic Albanian police as an “occupying” force in northern Kosovo. “It will distract the West’s attention from Ukraine. “Seeing a member of ultra-right extremists from Serbia on the barricades with some Wagner insignia, and who is known to have visited [the Wagner headquarters] in Russia a month before, is a clear provocation,” said Weber. Earlier this month, the Wagner Group announced the opening of a “friendship and cooperation centre” in the Serbian capital with the aim of bolstering the Moscow-Belgrade partnership through soft power means. “In case of war in the Balkans, which in my opinion is highly unlikely, Russia will strengthen its hand,” Dilek Kutuk, a PhD candidate and researcher on the Balkans, told Al Jazeera. This is mostly because of the ways in which this friction – or perhaps a potentially violent conflict – would serve to divert the West’s attention and resources away from Ukraine to deal with a crisis in Kosovo-Serbia relations. “I can’t imagine Serbia entering the north of Kosovo with either army or police, or both, because that would be a total violation of international law, on which Belgrade so much insists, and it would put Serbian forces in direct conflict with [KFOR],” Weber added.

MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo has reopened the main border crossing with Serbia after a nearby barricade that led to its closure was removed.

The removal agreement reached late Wednesday followed the release from jail of a former Kosovo Serb police officer, whose detention on a terrorism change triggered protests and clashes in northern Kosovo. The barricades were still in place as of mid-morning Thursday. The move could defuse weeks of tensions between Kosovo and Serbia that triggered fears of new clashes in the Balkans.

Serbs in Kosovo began removing road barricades erected in protest against the largely ethnic-Albanian government, after the US and European Union increased ...

At the same time, two trucks used to block roads in northern Kosovo were set on fire, Kosovo police [said](https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0UcCmgxCsEsuUYasUNTRgbf6VBR9o1BkuGpZL5z9eFw5D2Hab4r17gdGfDuoS6BiGl&id=100069908031425&mibextid=Nif5oz) on Twitter. [said](https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0JUsYQEt2JrQ5X5TZfhczCFMvjXUuKEdjs7W4zYT4VCUb3bxKWroep86BZmwnHiWVl&id=100069908031425&mibextid=Nif5oz). [increased](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-28/germany-calls-on-serbs-to-take-down-illegal-kosovo-barricades) pressure on both sides to avert a new Balkan conflict.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic says Serbs will start removing their barricades in Kosovo on Thursday in a move that deescalates tensions that triggered ...

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Negotiators have resolved a current threat of violence, but the EU says Kosovo and Serbia must reach a broader deal in 2023.

“Both leaders are prepared to meet — the problem is the outcome,” said Lajčák, who has chaired most of the meetings between Kosovo and Serbia for the past years. “The mistrust between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo has deepened as the result of the crisis.” and the European Union, and we have exemplary EU-U.S. “If things aren’t done by then, we will have to start again from scratch,” Lajčák warned. “Right now, we have a very favorable setup: We have the attention of the top leadership in the U.S. European Parliament elections and a U.S. All of this has turned EU and U.S. Lajčák insisted these efforts will not cease, saying the March deadline is meant to relay the seriousness of reaching a deal. And although more than 100 United Nations members have recognized Kosovo, full recognition has yet to be achieved. Yet Serbia continues to advocate for the derecognition of Kosovo’s independence. and NATO on the diplomatic efforts. “I believe it has solved the problem, but tensions remain high.

Serbia has revoked combat readiness of its troops on the border with Kosovo as Serbs started removing more than a dozen of roadblocks in the north of the ...

But Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence and has relied on Russia and China for backing. The unrest over Pantic’s detention sparked tense standoffs and gunshots but no major clashes. This deal was reached at a late-night crisis meeting with the leaders of Kosovo’s Serbs, Vucic said. Later, ethnic Serbs in Kosovo dismantled another roadblock and more are set to follow. A Kosovo court ordered him placed under house arrest Wednesday. “Violence can never be a solution.”

The blocking in the Merdare border crossing came as a gesture of support for Serbs in Northern Kosovo who had erected barricades for almost three weeks, ...

The conflict between Serbia and Kosovo dates to a war in the late 1990s. Additionally, reports of a rise in shootings, the latest of which occurred late on December 25, according to NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR, added to a spiraling situation. Srđan Simonović from the Kosovo NGO Humani Centar Mitrovica, said in a comment to VOA that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s decision to remove the barricades is illogical. “The removal of the barricades has to be done quickly, in a safe and secure way, avoiding any kind of incidents or risks. The NATO-led peacekeeping Kosovo Force (KFOR) issued a statement, saying it welcomed the decision to remove the barricades in the north of Kosovo. In his comment to VOA Serbian, Greg Delawie, former United States Ambassador to Kosovo, said, “I am very glad there seems to have been a peaceful resolution to this unfortunate situation. are mediating talks between Belgrade and Pristina and have voiced their relief the situation has been resolved. More than 20 years after the war, Serbia continues to use these kinds of maneuvers for its own political purposes and I think it will be repeated again. Thursday, after days of the crossing between Kosovo and Serbia being blocked by barricades, trucks now can traverse it again. For additional information, we refer you to "I think this is just one of their tactics. It only left the roads blocked for 19 days, the Serbs gained nothing from these barricades.