Kosovo

nation state

Kosovo  link
Type	nation state
One of the newest countries in the world.

Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, and has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 101 member states of the United Nations. Although Serbia does not officially recognise Kosovo as a sovereign state and continues to claim it as its constituent Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, it accepts the governing authority of the Kosovo institutions as a part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement.

2023 escalating tensions

Following a ballot in April 2023 that the Kosovo Serb majority boycotted in four northern municipalities by the Serbian border, Kosovans protested that their calls for more autonomy had been ignored. As local Serbs were refusing to work with the four new mayors, who hail from ethnic Albanian parties, police used tear gas in the town of Zvecan on 26 May 2023 to disband a crowd of ethnic Serbs who were trying to block a newly elected Albanian mayor from entering his office building.

The violence triggered an immediate backlash from Serbia, whose President Aleksandar Vučić placed his army on full combat alert and told military units to move closer to the border with Kosovo.

Russia blames Kosovo, the US and the EU for the escalating tensions in the Balkans:

“We decisively condemn Pristina’s provocative steps, which have brought the situation close to the hot phase and directly threaten the security of the whole Balkans region,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

“The responsibility for this lies fully with the United States and the European Union,” Zakharova said.