Kosovo PM wants to drag Serbia into open war with NATO: President
Kurti's ambition is to draw Belgrade into a conflict with NATO, but it is clear that the main fault lies with his regime, says Serbian President Vucic.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has accused Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti of wanting to drag Serbia into war with NATO.
"Kurti will not stop. The bottom line is that he does not want to establish the Community of Serb Municipalities", Vucic told the local broadcaster Pink TV on Saturday.
"He knows that this community must be in accordance with the principles from 2015 that (former Prime Minister of Kosovo) Isa Mustafa and I initialled. They will not allow the Serbs to do that", he said.
"He wants to raise tension, he wants to drag us into the war. He wants to be a war leader because he lacks that in his biography," Vucic added.
Vucic claims Kurti's ambition is to draw Serbia into a conflict with NATO and it is clear to the key actors that the main fault lies with Kurti's regime.
"Serbia now has to be careful," he also noted.
Türkiye's Bayraktar TB2 drones
Vucic will meet again on Saturday with representatives of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija region.
He said the strength of the Serbian army is incomparably greater than the Kosovo Security Forces, but that they are increasingly better armed, primarily with Turkish weapons.
"The Turks gave them very powerful armoured vehicles, mortars, Bayraktars, howitzers, these are all things that Kosovo Security Forces has. We have to take that into account.
"NATO has not yet allowed them to fly Bayraktars, but they have visibility at night for tens of kilometres. We have to be careful. We know what we are doing. We have to have adequate means to react if our people are threatened," Vucic added.
The Kosovo Security Forces received five of Türkiye's Bayraktar TB2 drones in early May amid the start of the largest international exercise, Defender Europe 23.
The Turkish combat drones are considered pivotal in conflicts ranging from Karabakh to Ukraine and have been in high demand worldwide.
Albania and Serbia have also reaffirmed their intentions to purchase combat drones.
"Within five months, we (Serbia) will receive several hundred to 1,000 kamikaze drones, which we got from the Middle East. We are getting them to deter a potential aggressor," said Vucic.
Calls for new elections
After Albanians, Serbs are Kosovo’s biggest ethnic group, especially in the country’s north, bordering Serbia. Belgrade has never recognised the 2008 independence of Kosovo.
Tensions have been soaring between the archrivals following Pristina's decision to install ethnic Albanian mayors in four Serb-majority municipalities.
The mayors were elected in polls held in April that were boycotted by ethnic Serb voters and had a minuscule turnout of less than 3.5 percent.
The European Union urged Kosovo to suspend police operations in the Serb-dominated municipalities and announce new snap local elections, saying the low turnout among local Serbs did not provide municipalities with long-term political solutions.
Ethnic Serbs have been protesting the election of the mayors since late May.