Djordjevic: Removal of Ukrainian flag from Pristina raises question of whether support for the people of Ukraine was sincere

Petar Djordjevic of the NGO “Young Active Gracanica” told Kosovo Online that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not need to issue a statement reaffirming that Ukraine’s position of not recognizing Kosovo remains unchanged for it to be clear that official Kyiv would not simply recognize Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence.

Commenting on the reaction of the Municipality of Pristina following the statement, which removed the Ukrainian flag bearing the inscription “Free Ukraine” from the city center, where it had stood for the previous several years, Djordjevic said that the decision to remove the Ukrainian flag was hasty and had attracted public attention.

“The question arises as to whether these four years, while the flag was in Pristina, were a period when Pristina’s institutions, authorities and the Albanian people in Kosovo in general sincerely supported the people of Ukraine, and whether they truly felt empathy for the people of Ukraine and stood in solidarity with them, or whether that was the case only until a statement like this came along, in which Ukraine protects and defends its state interests,” Djordjevic said.