UPDATE - Serbian Army Ready To Send Troops To Kosovo With NATO Approval - Defense Minister

The Serbian armed forces are ready to send soldiers to Kosovo and Metohija, if the relevant request by the authorities is approved by the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) under the UN Security Council resolution, Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said on Monday.

BELGRADE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2022) The Serbian armed forces are ready to send soldiers to Kosovo and Metohija, if the relevant request by the authorities is approved by the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) under the UN Security Council resolution, Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said on Monday.

On Saturday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an address to the nation that Belgrade would send a formal request to the KFOR mission command for permission to deploy the Serbian military and police in Kosovo, even though it is likely to be rejected. On Monday, Vucic specified that the request would be sent on December 15.

"Serbia is ready to send troops, hopefully the government will discuss it this week. We are talking about a paragraph of UN Security Council resolution 1244 and a military-technical agreement; given the situation on the ground, its application is requested. Because it is obvious that there are not enough security forces in Kosovo and Metohija to ensure the security of Serbs," Vucevic told Serbian broadcaster tv Pink.

The defense minister noted that Serbia has the right to request the implementation of the resolution and the deployment of its troops.

Meanwhile, the Serbian president condemned words of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who had slammed Belgrade's proposal to send Serbian forces to Kosovo as "completely unacceptable."

"She answered for the KFOR commander, who cannot answer since he has not yet received (the request from Belgrade).

There will be a government meeting on Thursday, then he will receive it," Vucic told reporters.

He also noted that Baerbock's statement had coincided with another refusal by Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti to form an association of Serb municipalities in the partially-recognized republic and forceful moves by the Kosovo-Albanian police in the north of Kosovo and in Metohija.

Earlier in the day, local media reported the sound of gunfire in the barricade areas, but there were no reports of casualties or damaged property. Primary and secondary Serbian schools in the north of Kosovo and in Metohija have been temporally closed amid tensions in the region.

On Saturday, Serbs in the northern part of Kosovo began setting up barricades in protest against the arrest of Dejan Pantic, a former police officer in Kosovo who quit his post in mid-November and was arrested by the Kosovar authorities at the Jarinje border crossing on suspicion of "terrorism."

On Sunday night, Vucic held a Security Council meeting and accused Kosovo of violating the existing agreements after Kurti urged the KFOR mission to dismantle road barricades erected by local Serbs in the north of the breakaway region. Kurti also noted that if KFOR refuses to step in, Kosovo's own security forces will be ready to carry out this operation themselves.