NATO "landed" hundreds more troops, EU came out to dialogue, Russia said "need to be decisive"

Kosovo police clashed with Serbian protesters in several northern localities on May 29. (Source:Sputnik)

The north of Kosovo has a strong Serb community. Last week, Serbs protested against the inauguration of new mayors from ethnic Albanian parties that won local elections.

On May 29, Kosovo police clashed with Serbian protesters in several northern localities, while in some areas, soldiers of the NATO-led Kosovo Peacekeeping Force (KFOR) also tried to separate opposing protest groups from each other.

These clashes left about 30 KFOR soldiers injured along with 52 other Serbs, including three seriously injured.

Faced with this situation, on May 30, NATO issued a statement saying that the alliance had deployed additional forces to Kosovo, stating that "violence must end."

"The deployment of additional NATO forces to Kosovo is a prudent measure to ensure that KFOR has the necessary capabilities to maintain security, in accordance with the UN Security Council mandate," the statement stressed.

According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance will send about 700 more troops to the northern part of Kosovo to help stabilize the situation there and will put reserve units "on a high state of readiness so they can be deployed immediately if needed. We are taking careful steps."

Also on May 30, the international community continued to speak out about the tense situation in Kosovo.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky condemned the May 29 attack on KFOR members and called on Serbia and Kosovo to immediately take measures to de-escalate tensions.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell also urged the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to immediately de-escalate the "completely unacceptable" clashes.

Announcing that he had spoken with Kosovo government leader Albin Kuri and Serbian President Alexander Vucic, Mr. Borrell said he asked both sides to avoid taking any further "unilateral actions" and "urgently take immediate and unconditional measures to reduce tensions."

The EU is now “discussing possible measures to be taken if the parties continue to fail to take the proposed steps towards de-escalation”.

On the Russian side, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that decisive steps should be taken to de-escalate tensions between Serbs and Kosovo, not "half-hearted measures" proposed by the West to "temporarily 'relocate' new 'mayors' from city buildings to other facilities".

The Russian Foreign Ministry representative also called on the West to "stop blaming" the Serbs for the violence in Kosovo, stating: "It is not necessary to provoke Serbia, which was forced to declare a full combat status of its armed forces and deploy troops close to the breakaway region of Kosovo."