So is it going?
Hundreds of additional forces to Kosovo
following Monday's clashes
with Serbian protesters
in the northern part of the country.
NATO commander
called the deployment of forces to Kosovo
a prudent measure
would ensure NATO's Kosovo
force, known
as KFOR,
would have the capabilities
to maintain security.
30 NATO peacekeepers in the Kosovo Air
Force were injured
during Monday's clashes.
Kosovo's prime minister
condemned the protesters,
telling CNN
he would not surrender his country
to what he called a fascist militia.
We are facing not peaceful protesters
who are facing a mob of extremists,
who are facing ultranationalist
right wingers
who are being paid
and ordered from Belgrade and who admire
despotic President Putin.
Meantime, Serbia's
president is expressing
concern for the survival
and security of Serbs in Kosovo.
Monday's clashes
took place
in the northern part of Kosovo,
which is a majority Kosovo Serb area.
Officials from the U.S., NATO
and the European Union
condemned the violence
against NATO's peacekeepers
and called on both sides to
de-escalate tensions.
It has been too much violence.
We have too much violence in Europe
already today.
We cannot afford another conflict
For more on this story, Hughes
Barbie Nadeau, who grew
a flare up in a tinderbox
More than 30 NATO's peacekeepers
injured in clashes
with Serb protesters
in northern Kosovo Monday.
Among them,
several Italians and Hungarians
Naito has condemned the attacks,
saying they were, quote,
totally unacceptable.
The peacekeepers known as KFOR
have been present
in this volatile region since 1999
in response
to brutal ethnic cleansing of Albanians
The U.N.
Security Council passed a resolution
after a United Nations
Security Council
resolution pave
the way for Kosovo's independence
from Serbia.
With NATO's
protecting the uneasy transition.
Former test for Kosovo
declared its independence
from Serbia in 2008,
with the ethnic Albanian
majority took over the country.
But Serbia did
not recognize
Kosovo as a sovereign nation,
nor do ethnic Serbs
who live in the north of the country
where Monday's violence sparked.
Nor does Russia,
which has strongly backed
Serbia over Kosovo.
Consider
the latest tension comes after ethnic
Serbs boycotted an election
in the northern part of Kosovo in April,
leading to
ethnic Albanians governing the region.
Serbia claims
the Kosovo government
is goading Serbs to clash with NATO's
Serbian across the remit of Islam.
I am urging the Serbs in Kosovo
not to get into a conflict with Netto,
not because I'm afraid
or because any of us are afraid.
None of us personally
have anything to lose.
But because that's
what Kosovo's prime minister wants most.
Nicholas needs to,
as peacekeepers,
stand guard inspection today,
whether the protesters here,
listen, could determine
whether relative peace
returns to the region
or if Europe has another conflict
on the horizon.
Barbie
Nadeau, CNN, Rome.
To do more into this story,
I'm joined by Matthew kind of via
Skype from Bratislava, Slovakia.
He's the chief Europe
correspondent for Politico.
Matthew, great to have you with us.
Tell us, have these the these tensions
been brewing for a while
Well, thanks for having me.
And you're absolutely right.
These tensions
really have been brewing for months
and actually years.
And what we've seen over the past
couple of days,
I think, is a reminder
for both the United States
and the Europeans
that the tensions in the region
remain unresolved.
And they cannot just continue to paper
over them that Kosovo remains
uncertainty
box in positions on both sides
have been
really hardening
recently and has led to
this violence, unfortunately.
Matthew, we know that
hundreds more peacekeepers
are going to be be sent in.
Do you expect things to die down
or will more clashes erupt
I think things probably will die
down in the short term.
There's a lot of pressure
on Kosovo from the United States.
Kosovo considers the United States to be
its closest
ally and
sells itself as the greatest
ally of the United States in the world.
There are
statues of Bill
Clinton and Madeleine Albright in Kosovo.
And so I think the pressure
from the Biden
administration
will definitely be felt there
and hopefully they will begin.
I've been meeting with Balkan leaders
in Bratislava
over the last couple of days,
and they are very skeptical
about the prospects
for lasting peace in Kosovo.
If the Western community
doesn't really start to do more here
and take these take these issues
more seriously
because the Serbian president,
as you mentioned
earlier, is also a major player
in this Alexander Vucic.
And there's a sense
in the Western Balkans
that he is also from winning
this discontent in Kosovo and that he is,
in fact, trying
to create a kind of greater Serbia again.
And Kosovo is a very emotional topic
for Serbs, both in Serbia itself
and beyond in places
like Bosnia Herzegovina as well.
Well, let's talk about that,
because Kosovo Serbs
make up
less than one 10th of the population.
They obviously live in the north.
They have demanded greater
autonomy from the ethnic
Albanian majority is that
likely to ever happen?
Well, I think,
you know,
this is a solution that most outside
observers say would make sense to pursue
that kind of path.
And so far,
there just has not been any real momentum
in the negotiations to to achieve that.
And there's also
the line,
you know, if Serbia will ever recognize
the sovereignty of Kosovo,
given what an emotional topic
it is in the country.
And just yesterday,
I believe you had soccer star
Djokovic in the French Open,
who is Serb
kind of making a pretty controversial
sort of step by signing the the
signing a television camera.
It's too large
an integral part of Serbia.
So you can see that
this issue really resonates
well beyond the world of politics.
Well, Matthew, can I say,
we certainly
appreciate your insight
and thank you for persevering through
that Skype connection, but
great to get your analysis