Vucevic: Serbia's vital interest is peace, and why Kurti is arming himself – everyone should think about that

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Serbia Milos Vucevic today, after the Turkish drones "bayraktars" were delivered to Kosovo, stated that in Pristina they had been arming themselves much more seriously lately, which, he added, NATO did not do as an Alliance, but individual NATO members, which provided training, education, and training of their staff, and now delivered weapons and military equipment, thereby violating UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Military Technical Agreement from Kumanovo.

"But they really don't care about those acts and international public law. Not only did the Albanians get five Bayraktar aircraft, but also very serious anti-armor and anti-tank systems, as well as mortars with mines and something else that is not to be underestimated. Our intelligence agencies are following it carefully, we were informed the moment the bayraktars arrived in Kosovo," Vucevic said on TV B92.

The Minister warned that this did not change the balance of power, but it certainly changed the picture on the ground and represented a far more serious security risk and challenge for Serbia.

"We are not just thinking, but implementing everything that would be a countermeasure and with which the Serbian Armed Forces could respond to the risk, in several directions and measures in terms of stopping those aircraft through the action of certain systems and electronic neutralization. This does not mean that we are preparing for war, but what is Albin Kurti preparing for - everyone should think about that," Vucevic said.

Regarding Kurti's statement that "the Kosovo Police is the successor of the KLA", Vucevic said that Kurti had to “flirt” with the KLA because of the conflict with the veterans, but that he actually clearly confirmed that Pristina was transforming the KSF, which otherwise should not even exist, into The Kosovo Armed Forces or the Kosovo Army, and they had even shortened the deadline for that goal, from 2027 to 2026.

"The question arises as to what and against whom Kurti is procuring drones. It is certainly not to do with meteorological surveys and landscape recording, but rather to represent force and weapons that can attack someone. And who could be the target of the Albanian army in Kosovo? It is not Albania, apparently, it's not Montenegro, and I don't see why it should be North Macedonia, where they hold 50 percent of the government, with about 25 percent of the population. The roads lead us to ours, and it should be to their homeland, the country of Serbia." Vucevic warned.

The situation on the ground kept changing, but Serbia was also preparing an additional response in terms of domestic production of weapons, as well as joint production of weapons, as well as additional procurement so that the sky above the country was more firmly secured, the Minister said.

He added that banning the export of weapons was a logical move considering everything that was happening in Kosovo.

"We are preparing to defend ourselves if someone attacks us, and we hope and do everything we can to resolve this politically, not through conflicts. For Serbia, it is in the national interest to have peace, not war. We are vitally interested in having peace and stability both in the country and in the region, since Serbia gains in peace and has something to lose in war. And what does Kurti have to lose in war? Some factory, development? No, he can only offer that he is fanatic enough to go to conflicts, in the complete ethnic cleansing of the Serbs. That is the only message he can convey to his voters and that is why he is very dangerous because he lives for the fulfillment of that dream, to be recorded in history as having expelled the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, to provoke a conflict between Serbia and NATO." Vucevic said.

All this, he emphasizes, makes Serbia's position more delicate and requires a lot of caution, not cowardice, a lot of good prediction and strategic thinking, looking five steps ahead, so that we can control the situation.

Commenting on the statement of the Special EU Envoy for dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, that there is a de-escalation in the agreement with the Pristina side, Vucevic said that it might seem from Brussels that the situation was "almost great", even though dozens of the Serbs had been arrested, shot, beaten...

"Kurti takes five steps into the field where he shouldn't have entered, they correct him and take him back two steps, but he takes three. He takes five more steps, and they take him back two, but he took six steps where he shouldn't have... What is 25 percent of the withdrawal of Special units? It is 25 percent of what is 100 percent illegal because everything he does is contrary to the agreements," Minister Vucevic noted.

That is why, he says, it is important that all citizens understand the situation, what is happening, and what surrounds Serbia, and that this is not some "comic book that we draw and invent", but a reality that worries and threatens the Serbs in Kosovo and the whole of Serbia.

He also pointed out that the fight for Kosovo should not be a topic on which some government "collapses" and showed disunity, noting that the Albanian parties in Kosovo, with minor or major differences, had no essential difference in the issue of the survival of the Serbs because they all wanted the same.

"It is important that we focus on the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija and the fate of Serbia," Vucevic said and added that pressures were coming from all sides, from outside and inside.

When asked about America's sanctions to the Security Intelligence Agency director Aleksandar Vulin, Vucevic said that it was necessary to check all the allegations and to look for documents from the US, because this was important both for Serbia and for Vulin himself, but that his "intuition" told him that those allegations were unfounded, and the background of everything was purely political, in the context of new geopolitics.