On Thursday, the Kosovo police dismissed as false the claims of the Serbian authorities that the Kosovo police officers crossed the border line with Serbia without authorization.
The Ministry of Defense of Serbia previously announced that a group of heavily armed Kosovo police officers crossed the border line in the village of Čirkovic in the municipality of Leposavić without authorization and accused the government of Prime Minister Aljbin Kurti of "attempting to provoke an incident and violate the agreement".
The Kosovo police stated that the statements in the statement of the Ministry of Defense of Serbia "are untrue and untrue".
"Thus, these announcements and the statement published in this way represent misinformation with the aim of creating insecurity among the citizens of that area and damaging the reputation of the work of the Kosovo Police," the reaction of the Kosovo Police states. The Ministry of Defense of Serbia, while claiming that the "unauthorized crossing of the administrative line" between Serbia and Kosovo is a "dangerous provocation and threat to peace", stated that the Serbian Army monitors the situation on the ground and is ready to react in accordance with the provisions of the Kumanovo Military-Technical Agreement.
The Ministry of Defense of Serbia stated in a statement that it asked KFOR "as the only legal and legitimate military force" in the territory of Kosovo, to "take measures in accordance with its mandate and prevent the interim Pristina authorities from attempting to provoke an escalation of violence."
Kosovo and Serbia have a border line about 350 kilometers long and over 60 percent of this line includes municipalities in the north of Kosovo, populated mostly by Serbs.
In recent years, Kosovo has often accused Serbia of bringing the army close to the border. In June 2023, Kosovo announced that three of its police officers had been arrested in the country's territory near the border, while Serbia claimed that they had crossed the border line. A few days later, the Serbian authorities released the policemen.
The border between Kosovo and Serbia is an administrative line for Belgrade.
The NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, is responsible for the security of Kosovo's borders with Serbia, while the Kosovo Police is responsible for the rest of the border line.
According to the decision of the KFOR commander from 2014, the police can patrol the border line between Kosovo and Serbia up to one kilometer close to the dividing line. KFOR currently has more than 4.400 soldiers in Kosovo.
NATO increased its presence in Kosovo during 2023, after the rise of tensions in the north of the country.
KFOR is the third security response in Kosovo, after the Kosovo Police, which is the first, and after the EU rule of law mission, EULEX.
The new head of NATO, Mark Rute, said last month that the security situation in Kosovo and in the Western Balkans region is fragile.
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