Zivotic: Both the West and Russia use Ukraine and Kosovo for their own interests

Professor at the Department of History at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, Aleksandar Zivotic, says that both the West and Russia are using Ukraine and Kosovo for their own interests, and that the key similarity between these two cases is the issue of respecting territorial integrity.

"Certainly, the Kosovo issue is not only a point but something that can be broadly characterized as something Russia uses as a precedent to explain its own policy. However, it uses this from a completely different position, emphasizing that the system of international law was broken here, that after that the existing norms no longer apply, and on the other hand, it certainly uses its position in the Security Council, which allows it to influence very important aspects," Zivotic emphasized in an interview for Kosovo Online.

On the other hand, he believes, for the West, the Kosovo issue is completely different from the one in Ukraine.

"The West certainly uses the Kosovo issue, but not in the context of Ukraine, given that the West consistently emphasizes that Kosovo is a unique case. Indeed, the West would not be able to justify its policy otherwise if it insists on respecting international norms in other cases, while in this case, those norms were not respected. Therefore, it must insist that Kosovo is a special case, and they truly and consistently do so," Zivotic stressed.

He added that the key similarities in both cases are the threat to territorial integrity and the causes of the problems.

"The key similarity lies in the issue of international public law and the respect for a state's territorial integrity. Just as the territorial integrity of Ukraine is threatened, so is the territorial integrity of Serbia," Zivotic told Kosovo Online.

As another important similarity, he points out the causes of both problems.

"Primarily, it is an armed rebellion by a part of the population, compactly settled in a certain territory, against the central state authority. In all other aspects, of course, we cannot draw further similarities, given that these are different geographical areas, with different historical and political legacies, as well as different customs of the population," Zivotic believes.

He also adds that due to the current geopolitical situation, it is not surprising that parallels between Kosovo and Ukraine are constantly being drawn, even in the UN General Assembly.