Kosovo's government is accusing its neighbor Serbia of trying to destabilize the country as it grapples with weeks of protests and violence and says Serbia is doing so under the influence of Russia
Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new barricades on Tuesday, hours after Serbia said it had put its army on the highest combat alert following weeks of"It is precisely Serbia, influenced by Russia, that has raised a state of military readiness and that is ordering the erection of new barricades, in order to justify and protect the criminal groups that terrorize... citizens of Serb ethnicity living in Kosovo," Svecla said in a statement.
Serbia denies it is trying to destabilise its neighbour and says it just wants to protect its minority there. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday, Serbia would "continue to fight for peace and seek compromise solutions." Belgrade had said late on Monday that in light of the latest events in the region and its belief that Kosovo was preparing to attack Serbs and forcefully remove the barricades, it had ordered its army and police to be put on the highest alert.have erected multiple roadblocks in and around Mitrovica and exchanged fire with police after the arrest of a former Serb policeman for allegedly assaulting serving police officers.
Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West, following a 1998-1999 war in which NATO intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens. Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations and five EU states - Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus - refuse to recognise Kosovo's statehood.A woman walks near a roadblock, in the northern part part of the ethnically-divided town of Mitrovica, Kosovo, December 27, 2022. REUTERS/Florion Goga
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