A Russian UN employee was among more than two dozen people detained by Kosovo police in an armed raid in the Serb-dominated north of the country that has caused international tensions.

Moscow denounced it as a “provocation” and the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, announced he had put the army on full alert. A Serbian military column was on Tuesday afternoon heading south towards Kosovo from the central city of Kraljevo, Serbia’s official news agency reported.

Kosovo’s president, Hashim Thaçi, said the raid was aimed at combatting criminal groups operating in the north of Kosovo, a hotspot for smuggling. He said the Russian UN employee was “camouflaged under a diplomatic veil to hamper the police operation”.

Kosovo police said five officers and six civilians were injured during the operation, in which 19 police officers and a number of others were arrested. Some of the injuries came as police attempted to clear the road of makeshift barricades. The police chief Rashit Qalaj said the UN staff members were arrested due to their “participation in the barricades”.

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The Kosovo prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, referred to the Russian as a “diplomat” in inverted commas. “Kosovo and regional countries are familiar with the Russian agenda to destabilise our region,” he wrote on Twitter.

Kosovo split from Serbia after a Nato intervention in 1999, and formally declared independence in 2008. Serbia still claims sovereignty over the region, and Russia has also refused to recognise Kosovo independence. The government in Pristina has only limited control over the Serb-dominated north of the country.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, condemned the raid as “another provocation by Pristina aimed at scaring and pressuring the non-Albanian population and acquiring control over these areas by force”.

Over the past year, there has been talk of a land-swap agreement that could see Serbia take control of northern Kosovo in exchange for handing over a largely ethnic Albanian strip of southern Serbia; however public opinion in both countries, as well as many foreign diplomats, have been opposed to such an idea.

Thaçi and Vučić met regularly, with EU backing, in order to seek a negotiated settlement that would pave the way for both countries to move forward in the EU accession process.

In November, however, Kosovo introduced a 100% tax on all goods imported from Bosnia and Serbia, saying it would not lift the tax until the two countries recognise Kosovo’s independence. As a result, Belgrade suspended the EU-backed dialogue.

The raid took place in the midst of a delicate political moment for Belgrade as Vučić attempted to rally the support of Serbia’s parliament for a compromise deal on Kosovo.



Vučić accused Kosovo police of using force against unarmed Serbs and firing into the air. “Serbia will try to preserve peace and stability, but will be fully ready to protect our people at the shortest notice,” he said.

Reports in Serbia said the defence minister Aleksandar Vulin arrived at military barracks in the city of Kraljevo shortly before an armoured column left the base and headed south. There were also reports of a Serbian fighter jet flying low close to the border with Kosovo.

Selim Selimi, Haradinaj’s chief of staff, said police had not realised the UN employee was a Russian citizen, and had arrested him because he was impeding their work. “The use of the official UN vehicle was done intentionally, and this person clearly picked a side in an issue that relates neither to the UN or the UN mission in Kosovo,” he said.

UNMIK, the United Nations mission stationed in Kosovo, said two staff members were injured in the incident. Zahir Tanin, its head, called for the immediate release of the UNMIK staff and said “any harm to United Nations staff will be met with the highest degree of diplomatic and international legal responses”.

The spokesman for the Nato peacekeeping mission based in Kosovo, Vincenzo Grasso, said the force is monitoring the situation and coordinating with authorities.