Another war in Europe? Serbia puts forces on Kosovo border on combat alert, ignores NATO appeal

Yet another conflict appears to be threatening Europe with Serbia on 26 December 2022 placing its security forces on the border with Kosovo on "full state of combat readiness".

Serbia's Interior Minister said that the President gave the order to take "all measures be taken to protect the Serbian people in Kosovo".

Serbia ignored NATO's appeals for peace between the two wartime Balkan adversaries.

Serbia has claimed harassment of Kosovo Serbs by ethnic Albanians in the breakaway province that declared its independence in 2008.

Earlier Monday, NATO-led peacekeepers said they were investigating a shooting incident in a tense northern region of Kosovo, urging calm as Serbia's top military officials inspected their troops on the border in a show of combat readiness.

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The incident on Sunday evening took place in Zubin Potok, a town where local ethnic Serbs have been manning road barricades for the past two weeks and where tensions have been running high.

The peacekeepers, known as KFOR, said the incident happened near one of their patrols, involving unknown people. A statement said no one was injured and “we are working to establish all the facts.”

Serbia's defence minister and the army's chief of staff travelled to the border with Kosovo, praising the combat readiness of Serbian troops and their firepower, including howitzers and other military hardware. Serbia, which has been armed through Russian donations and military purchases, has been sabre rattling and threatening force against its former province for a long time.

Kosovo remains a potential flashpoint in the Balkans years after the 1998-99 war that ended with NATO intervention. Serbia doesn't recognize the 2008 declaration of independence of its former province, while Western efforts to mediate a solution so far have failed.

(With agency inputs)