Media: Albanian opened fire on Serbian youths in southern Kosovo

An 11-year-old Serbian boy and his 21-year-old cousin were attacked by an Albanian in partially recognized Kosovo, transmits Serbian edition of Evening News.

The incident took place in Gotovush, a small town in the south of Kosovo. The boy and his relative in New Year’s outfits walked along the side of the road and carried a badnyak – a log used for burning during the ceremony on Christmas Eve among the southern Slavs. At this time, an Albanian, driving by, opened fire on them from an unidentified weapon, wounding one of the young men in the arm and the other in the shoulder.

The wounded were taken to the hospital.

In the first half of December 2022, another escalation of the situation occurred in the north of Kosovo, when the Pristina authorities detained an ethnic Serb, former policeman Dejan Pantic. He was suspected of attacking the election commission. In response to the actions of Pristina, the Serbian population began to erect barricades, blocking the passage along the highway in several settlements near the Yarine checkpoint, and went out to protest. Due to the aggravation of the situation in the region, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic convened an emergency meeting of the country’s Security Council in response to Kurti’s threats to dismantle the barricades on his own.

On December 26, Vucic ordered the Serbian armed forces to be brought to the highest degree of combat readiness, but already on December 29 he canceled this decision, and on the same day the barricades began to be dismantled. On December 30, the Serbian president said that the escalation of the conflict had been avoided.

Later, January 4 Vučić promised to increase the number of special forces of the army of Serbia to 5000 people. According to Vučić, it was “barely” possible to maintain peace and stability in relations with Kosovo, adding that “difficult trials” lie ahead.