Vucevic: Situation in Kosovo-Metohija disconcerting

BELGRADE - Serbian Defence Minister Milos Vucevic said on Wednesday the situation in Kosovo-Metohija was "disconcerting, to say the least" and that life for Serbs there was unsustainable.

In a statement to Prva TV, Vucevic said the Serb population in Kosovo-Metohija had shrunk by 11 per cent since the advent of Pristina's PM Albin Kurti, and noted that he was afraid the trend would continue.

He said Serbia and the Serbs had been deceived during the barricade crisis in late 2022.

"At the time, we had slightly more than 11,000 Serbian Armed Forces and special police troops in the area of the administrative line and at nearby garrisons, while two days after the events in Banjska, we had 8,350," Vucevic said.

Serbia is under a barrage of accusations from the international community over an alleged buildup of forces, Vucevic said.

"Today, we have fewer than 4,500 Serbian Armed Forces troops in a sovereign part of the territory of the Republic of Serbia where our army can move absolutely freely. There are no restrictive provisions for the Ground Safety Zone in terms of how many people we can have or how much equipment and arms we can deploy in the area," he said.

He added that disengagement - not a withdrawal - of a part of army troops was underway and that the troops were returning to their garrisons and barracks and to their regular duties.

Vucevic said the Serbian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence were monitoring all developments in the area as they posed a major security risk and a threat to Serbia.