The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said that Serbia is intensifying cooperation with Russia, China and Iran, warning that there is a real risk of, as he said, a new war in the region.<\/p>\n
During the speech at the Defense Conference, which is being held in London, Kurti said that Serbia’s alignment with Russia, the “destructive approach” to Kosovo, and the rapid armament “are indicators that [Serbia’s] goal is de-escalation with the aim of realizing its ambitions of its territory”.<\/p>\n
Kurti said that at the time when Europe is experiencing a war, referring to the war in Ukraine, a war in the region should not be ignored.<\/p>\n
“Three of the four combined brigades of the Serbian army, including 48 operational bases around the border with Kosovo, not including other specialized units, are stationed in the south of the territory, near the border with Kosovo. The threat is not merely theoretical. The risk of a new war is real,” Kurti said.<\/p>\n
During the speech at the conference in London, Kurti also spoke about the attack on the Kosovo Police in Banjska in Zve\u00e7an in September of the last year.<\/p>\n
A sergeant was killed by the attack of a group of armed Serbs, while in the clashes that followed in and around the Banjska Monastery, three Serbian attackers were also killed.<\/p>\n
Kosovo has blamed Serbia for the attack, but Belgrade has denied having a hand in it.<\/p>\n
The responsibility for the attack has been taken by Milan Radoicic, former vice-president of Serb List, the main party of Serbs in Kosovo, which enjoys the support of Belgrade.<\/p>\n
Kurti said that the group of nearly 100 armed individuals had entered Kosovo “with a plan for a longer and wider conflict in the northern part of our state”.<\/p>\n
“It’s not just Serbia’s alignment with Russia that suggests the group’s goal was to replicate what Russia did in Donbas in 2014,” Kurti said.<\/p>\n
He was referring to the conflict in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014 between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.<\/p>\n
Kurti said that “there is no doubt” who is to blame for the attack in Banjska.<\/p>\n
“The attack in Banjska happened because of the state captured in Belgrade and because of the aggressive and expansionist ambitions of the heads of state”, said Kurti, writes Radio Free Europe.<\/p>\n
He added that Kosovo is not the only country in the Western Balkans that is vulnerable to physical attacks. According to him, the threat is also manifested through the disinformation infrastructure “that Russia has helped to build”, which, according to him, uses NATO’s intervention against Serbian targets, which led to the liberation of Kosovo, “to slander the West”.<\/p>\n
At the end of last year, a report on disinformation was published, which was compiled by the Balkan Investigative Journalism Network (BIRN), with the support of the European Union. The report stated that Kosovo is exposed to disinformation and narratives coming from Russia and China which aim to incite inter-ethnic and inter-religious war in the country, to criminalize NATO and reduce society’s trust in Euro-Atlantic integrations, as well as reflect the USA as a bad example.<\/p>\n
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The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said that Serbia is intensifying cooperation with Russia, China and Iran, warning that there is a real risk of, as he said, a new war in the region. During the speech at the Defense Conference, which is being held in London, Kurti said that Serbia’s alignment with Russia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":69346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,1803],"tags":[2436,1204,243,151,529,301,787,637],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n