Barricades, NATO and protests: the aggravation in Serbia and Kosovo is the main thing

NATO combat helicopters have already been seen above the barricades in Kosovo. The Serbs are refusing to remove the barriers they have erected against Albanian militants who arrived in the region the day before. The official authorities of Serbia are demonstrating their readiness to intervene in the situation militarily.

The Balkans continue to blaze, the situation is more and more explosive. The Kosovo Serbs are still on the barricades, holding the line, blocking the roads with trucks, arming themselves, burning fires, rebuilding a tent camp.

“The situation is very tense, it greatly affects the lives of the local youth. Cafes are closed, now there is a lot of tension and tension, there is fear, schools do not work,” – shared a resident of the city of Kosovska-Mitrovica Lyubish Markovic.

The threat of a humanitarian catastrophe is growing, the supply of food and medicine is a big question.

“Now the situation is bad, but so far there are supplies. Let’s see how it will be in the future, so that everything is there, so that the people do not tolerate anything and everyone is provided with the necessary,” – said a member of the Chamber of Commerce in Kosovska Mitrovica Radosh Petrovic.

Tensions do not subside on the demarcation line either – Serbia is building up its military grouping, drawing additional forces. The Minister of Defense and the Deputy Chief of the Serbian General Staff are inspecting the border garrisons.

“The Serbian army is ready to carry out any task it receives from the supreme commander in order to protect the integrity of our country, the sovereignty of the Republic of Serbia and the protection of all its citizens,” – stressed the Minister of Defense of Serbia Milos Vucevic.

But the NATO contingent is also on the alert. The North Atlantic Alliance together with the European Union does not exclude the strengthening of its KFOR grouping, which literally means “for Kosovo” and in the interests of Kosovo, and, apparently, not at all for peace in the region.

“Almost four thousand people and is a key factor in stabilizing the region and the situation. Our forces are capable and ready,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenbregg said.

The Russian diplomatic mission in Belgrade notes that it is as if for a reason that the West is now opening this second European front, precisely to bring these bombardments of Yugoslavia in 1999 to a logical end from the point of view of the West.

“There is a desire in this situation to quickly end this issue, as the West needs, in an absolutely anti-Semitic vein, to force Belgrade to recognize the independence of Kosovo, to close this issue, in other words, to bring Serbia to its knees, divide the Serbian world and really decide how they understand themselves , the Serbian question”, – stressed the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in Belgrade Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko.

In Belgrade itself, against this background, mass protests do not subside, the people demand from Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić the most decisive action to protect the Serbian ethnic minority.

“We want to support fellow countrymen in Kosovo and Metohija, who are fighting at the barricades for their right to live in Serbia. Our holy land is there,” – said one of the participants of the rally.

The “trigger” is now and again pressed precisely from the Kosovo side – provocations have not stopped since August: either a ban on the movement of cars with Serbian numbers, or the arrest for a month of the Serbian policeman Dejan Pantic, which led to a new outbreak and the construction of barricades. The man seemed to have been kidnapped – his relatives have neither connection with him, nor the place of his imprisonment.

“We, as a family, do not contact him, everything goes through a lawyer, he was at a meeting that took place today. He was interrogated online, the prosecutor filed charges that he participated in the attacks and that they have some evidence”– said Predrag Pantic, the son of the detained policeman Dejan Pantic.

New attacks against Serbs can be found today even on the shelves of Kosovo supermarkets, where such calls not to buy appeared next to Serbian products.

At the same time, the United States and the European Union do not abandon attempts to strengthen not only military, but also negotiating positions. Special envoys for the Western Balkans have been sent to Belgrade and Pristina to resume dialogue. Their mere presence should freeze this smoldering conflict. But will not everything flare up with renewed vigor immediately after departure?