The Serbian government he said he had placed his troops on standby reinforced on Monday night before recent tensions in neighboring Kosovowhere there were shots, explosions and roadblocks.
The president of Serbian, Aleksandar Vucic“ordered the Serbian Army be at the highest level of combat readinessthat is, at the level of using armed force,” Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said in a statement.
His ministry added that the head of state had given instructions to reinforce the Serb military presence in the area from the current 1,500 troops to 5,000.
The day before, Vucic had sent the head of the army, the General Milan Mojsilovicto the border with Kosovo, where the Serbian community has erected barricades in a new increase in tensions in this young Balkan country.
“The situation there is complicated and complex“, the military chief had told Pink television on Sunday night on the way to Raska, 10 km from the border with Kosovo.
This “requires the presence of the Serbian Army along the administrative line“he added, using a term used by the Serbian authorities to designate the border with Kosovo.
Subsequently, the Ministry of the Interior had declared that “all units” dependent on its department would pass “immediately under the command of the chief of the General Staff.”
“On the brink of armed conflict”
Serbia does not recognize the independence of its former southern province – populated mostly by ethnic Albanians – proclaimed in 2008.
Belgrade encourages the 120,000 Kosovo Serbs to challenge local authoritieswhile Pristina searches strengthen their sovereignty throughout the territory.
Hundreds of Serbs have maintained roadblocks in northern Kosovo since December 10 to protest the arrest of a former Serb policeman, which paralyzed movement to two border posts with Serbia.
On Monday, Serbian media released a video shared on social media in which gunshots are heardstating that they are “fights” that occurred when Kosovar forces tried to dismantle a barricade.
Kosovar police denied that its members had participated in any shooting.
Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said the attack took place against a NATO Kosovo International Security Force (KFOR) patrol.
KFOR announced an investigation into shooting “on December 25, near a patrol of the NATO mission in Kosovo”, although it did not cause “injuries or material damage”.
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Last week, the Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, He had warned that the situation in Kosovo is “on the brink of armed conflict.”
The tension escalated in november when hundreds of Serb officials in Kosovo resigned en masse to protest a now-suspended government decision in Pristina to ban Kosovo Serbs from using Belgrade-issued car license plates.