Commander of KFOR: There is no evidence of the presence of Wagner's brigades in Kosovo

KFOR Commander Angelo Michele Ristuccia said, in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica, that there was no evidence of the presence of Wagner's brigades in Kosovo.

Asked to comment on the writing of the Israeli website "Terror Alarm" that the men of the Wagner Brigade are arriving in Kosovo, he replied, "To this day, there is no evidence of their presence in this area."

Ristuccia underlined that these were often unverified news, a product of misinformation.

In the interview, Ristuccia also said that if KFOR had not intervened on Monday, they would have "mourned the dead".

"This is an operating room with an extremely volatile situation. I use this term consciously. The situation can suddenly change due to seemingly insignificant events. On Monday, I pre-organized a contingent of men in four Serb-majority municipalities on the occasion of the inauguration of the recently elected Kosovo Albanian mayors. The risk was connected to the fact that Prime Minister Kurti decided to continue with the implementation of the appointment of the mayor despite the protests of the Serbs and the doubts of the international community," he explained.

Ristuccia said that the stubbornness of Albanian local authorities not to act on recommendations received from Western partners that served to facilitate dialogue, especially in light of the progress achieved with the Brussels and Ohrid agreements, had led to a crisis.

He pointed out that without the intervention of KFOR, the dead would certainly be mourned among the Serbs and the Albanian policemen.