Vucevic: Security situation in northern Kosovo is high-risk; we have defined red lines

Minister of Defense Milos Vucevic says that the security situation in northern Kosovo is high-risk due to unilateral, illegal, and illegitimate decisions by the administration in Pristina, and he adds that red lines have been defined, RTS reports.

Speaking about the current level of security risk in northern Kosovo, Vucevic states that it is likely the highest possible.

"If we could rank it, considering not only what has happened in the past two days, especially on Monday, but also everything that has been happening for weeks and months, to which official Serbia has been alerting, with the President of the Republic discussing with international representatives and informing the public in Serbia about the possible scenarios, and unfortunately, it has happened," Vucevic says.

He points out that "Albin Kurti's path leads to escalation, conflicts, injuries, gunfire, and all the scenes we have witnessed, which we do not want to see anywhere, especially not in our country."

"The security situation is high-risk due to unilateral, illegal, and illegitimate decisions by the administration in Pristina, and above all, let's call it by its real name and try to summarize it as the occupation of northern Kosovo by the Albanian administration in Pristina," Vucevic adds.

He emphasizes that Belgrade believes in political dialogue, negotiation, and a political solution, which is why they had meetings with ambassadors of the Quint countries, as well as ambassadors of China and Russia, yesterday.

"That is why the President had several phone conversations with all those involved in the dialogue process because it is always better to seek a political path, or a political solution, rather than engaging in conflicts," Vucevic says.

According to him, the Serbian Armed Forces have been raised to the highest level of combat readiness in accordance with the order of the President.

"It is ready to fulfill any task, and from the political side, Serbia has defined the red lines when our most vital national and state interests are at stake. We are talking about worst-case scenarios where someone is killing Serbs, where physical liquidation of our people by the Kosovo police is happening, expulsions of Serbs, pogroms, and everything that happened to us 20 or 30 years ago. Those situations would indeed be not only a red alert but also the moment when Serbia cannot simply talk and sit idle," Vucevic says.

He adds that they hope and do everything possible to prevent such developments because, he states, it is not in the interest of Serbia or anyone else.