Tensions in the Balkans are once again on the rise as U.S. and European diplomats are desperately attempting to subdue open warfare in southern Europe.
Western officials have blamed the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, for the growing tensions after he deployed armored vehicles to install ethnic Albanian mayors in a Serb-populated area of Kosovo, injuring 50 Serb protesters.
The incident also witnessed more than 30 NATO peacekeepers (Kfor) injured in the unrest as they clashed with the protesting Serbs. U.S. authorities warned Kurti against installing ethnic Albanian mayors by force after Serbs boycotted a recent election in the region.
The criticism was “unprecedented and signaled a collapse in the diplomatic process,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
“It is very clear that Kosovar authorities bear responsibility for the current situation,” stated French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, joined Macron in telling Kurti, “[t]hese actions have sharply and unnecessarily escalated tensions.”
Russia further raised tensions this week after Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Wednesday that the Kremlin supports ethnic Serbs “without question” and that Serbs rights “must be respected.”
The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, condemned the growing violence as “unacceptable and must stop.”
“We have decided to deploy 700 more troops from the operational reserve force for Western Balkans and to put an additional battalion of reserve forces on high alertness so that they can also be deployed if needed,” Stoltenberg added.
