Groups of Serbs set up two new checkpoints in the towns of Zvešan and Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo - today, Tuesday - hours after Serbia announced that it had put its army on high alert, due to the escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina for weeks.

And the Kosovo police said - in a statement - that "criminal groups" set up new barriers with heavy vehicles in the north of the country, and continue to obstruct freedom of movement.

The Serbs erected new barriers in Zveshan and near the Bosnian neighborhood in northern Mitrovica, despite calls from the European Union and the NATO peace force in Kosovo to remove barriers that impede freedom of movement in Kosovo.


Previously, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, declared that if KFOR and EULEX do not remove the barriers, the Kosovo Police will remove them within a few days.

"Kosovo cannot engage in dialogue with criminal gangs and traffic must return to normal. We will not allow roadblocks on any road," the Kosovo government said - in a statement on Monday.

In its response to the request to remove the barriers, the government said that the police forces are able and ready to intervene, but it is waiting for the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, who play a neutral role.

Recently, Kosovo began deploying more police units in the north of the country, two days after explosions and sirens were heard in the cities north of Kosovo, ahead of early elections that were scheduled for December 18 in 4 municipalities, before they were postponed.

High alert

On the other hand, the Serbian authorities criticized the Kosovo government's move, considering it an "attempt to invade the northern regions of the country" inhabited by Kosovo Serbs.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the West of standing with Kosovo in its quest to assert its territorial integrity at the expense of the lives of Serbs residing there.

And the Serbian Ministry of Defense said - in a statement issued late Monday - that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had ordered the army and police forces to be put on alert, in response to the recent events in the region, and because it believed that Kosovo was preparing to attack Serbs and remove barriers by force.

And Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said that the President of Serbia ordered the army to be at the highest level of combat readiness, following the tensions on the border with Kosovo.

He added that President Aleksandar Vucic also ordered the reinforcement of the Special Armed Forces from 1,500 to 5,000 people.

These orders come from Vucic after sending the army commander, Gen. Milan Moiselovic, to the border with Kosovo last Sunday.

The Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic warned last week that the situation in Kosovo is "on the brink of armed conflict."


Since December 10, Serb citizens in northern Kosovo have begun setting up several roadblocks around and within the city of Mitrovica and have exchanged fire with the Kosovo police after a former Serbian policeman was arrested, on the back of allegations of assaulting police officers during a previous protest.

Kosovo - whose majority population is Muslim Albanians - separated from Serbia in 1999, and declared its independence from it in 2008, but Belgrade still considers it part of its territory.

About 50,000 Serbs live in the northern parts of Kosovo, with an Albanian majority, and refuse to recognize the state or government of Kosovo.

They view Belgrade as their capital and are supported by Serbia, from which Kosovo declared its independence in 2008.