Montgomery: Kurti is trying to force the West to "view" the Kosovo situation as another Ukraine

Former US Ambassador to Serbia William Montgomery said that the President of Serbia had been right to call the ambassadors to warn them of the dangers of the current situation because, as he stated, there was no doubt that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti was an ultranationalist who knew exactly what he as doing or trying to do, B92 reports.

"Kurti is trying to get the West to 'view' the Kosovo situation as another Ukraine, replacing Kosovo Serbs with Ukrainian Russians. Although a few people in the West who really know the region (like Carl Bildt) can see through the ploy, many will not. If the situation escalates and the Serbian Army intervenes, the Western supporters of Kosovo can request sanctions, similar to those imposed on Russia," Montgomery said for Tanjug, commenting on the events in the north of Kosovo.

As he said, the problem for Vucic was how to avoid falling into that trap, while still protecting the Kosovo Serbs, and that his best chance was to force KFOR to intervene aggressively in order to turn the situation around.

"Every effort should be made to do this. Do they have the will? I'm not sure, but I know that the endless calls for continued dialogue are useless. Kurti now needs to feel the real consequences of his actions and Kosovo Albanians must force themselves to understand the consequences of Kurti's policies,“ Montgomery said.

He adds that the tragedy is that "acting sooner or now" might seem "difficult" for the West, but that history will catch them roughly if they do not take action and if there is another war in the Balkans, at a time when it is clear the goal of US President Joe Biden is exactly the opposite.