Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Commentary by Russian military blogger Andrey Chervonets
A temporary lull in the Balkans after Serbia and Kosovo nearly came to blows over an automobile "license plate war" was only a brief reprieve before another escalation. The situation in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, where Kosovo Serbs live, is heating up. Apparently, the parties decided to raise the stakes.
Kosovo police say they deployed police to Serb-populated areas to 'ensure security.'
The Brussels agreement between Belgrade and Pristina on a settlement in Kosovo was signed in 2013 and provides for the creation of a body of self-government for Serbs living in the unrecognized republic. And according to the same agreements, the Kosovo authorities do not have the right to introduce their power structures into the territory of four Serbian municipalities without the permission of their administrations.
After several hundred Kosovo special forces invaded the north of the province without receiving permission from the heads of Serbian municipalities, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that in the coming days Belgrade would send a request to the NATO-led International Mission in Kosovo and Metohija (KFOR) for deployment in region of their security forces.
Belgrade has no choice - Pristina has crossed a red line. If representatives of the army and police of the Republic of Serbia, who have every right to be here on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, do not come here, then the occupation of the north of Kosovo and Metohija with the threat of clashes and pogroms will become a reality.
We are not talking about some unfounded fears and phobias of Belgrade. The outgoing year 2022 broke the anti-record for the number of incidents with Kosovo Serbs that occurred here. And here also Pristina moved its law enforcement agencies to the Serbian municipalities.
In response, on the night of December 10-11, the Serbs began to erect barricades in the northern regions of Kosovo. Vucic addressed the nation on the situation in Kosovo, in which he announced a record number of attacks by Kosovo Albanians on Serbs and stressed that Serbia would demand from KFOR (the NATO mission in Kosovo) the return of Serbian law enforcement structures to the unrecognized republic.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic responded to the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, to his demand to dismantle the barricades. In short: "The EU only notices the Serbs when they are at the barricades."
All four Serbian municipalities do not have educational institutions as of today. The Serbs are not going to leave the barricades. KFOR promises to overclock them within 48 hours. But the Serbian special forces also advanced towards Kosovo. Serbian resources write that the Nis Corps arrived in Raska along with the 63rd airborne brigade and is only 7 km from the demarcation line. According to some sources, the Serbian gendarmerie in full force of more than 5 thousand people is also drawn to the south.
More of the interesting. German Foreign Minister Annalene Berbock said that the return of Serbian security forces to the province was "unacceptable." She openly states that UNSCR 1244, which provides for the return of a certain number of Serb security forces to Kosovo, should be ignored - because this is "unacceptable." That is, the resolutions of the UN Security Council are unacceptable to her: I honestly want to ask how you can be such an outrageous fool? It is not clear only what her statements are caused by? Narrow-mindedness? Uneducated? Ordinary bullshit? Or a cocktail of all these qualities?
As for the situation itself, we will observe. Apparently, the next step is for Pristina. They will go to a military confrontation with the Serbs, Vučić will be forced to send troops into the Serbian enclaves. The Kosovars will not go to the aggravation, then the Serbs will stop the troops at the border.
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