Kurti calls Serbian army exercises near Kosovo aggression. KFOR says they pose no danger

Prime Minister Albin Kurti has accused Belgrade of showing "aggression" after the Serbian army conducted military exercises in the village of Muhoc in Bujanovac, near Kosovo, on Wednesday. The action has also prompted a reaction from official Tirana. And the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo - KFOR - has said that such exercises do not pose a threat to security in the region.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti has expressed concern about the exercises that Serbian military forces conducted on Wednesday in the Albanian-populated village of Muhoc, which is located near Kosovo.

At the opening of the Government meeting, Kurti stated that with such actions, Serbia aims to increase tensions, intimidate Albanians living in Bujanovac, and even incite provocations.

"Such a display of military force over homes, schools, and medical centers constitutes not only pressure, incitement of tension, and an attempt to intimidate the residents there, who have been facing administrative ethnic cleansing by the autocratic Serbian regime for years, but also shows an open provocation towards our independent state, the Republic of Kosovo," Kurti stressed on Thursday. 
The Prime Minister also assessed that such exercises are a dangerous display of aggression.

"These provocations near the border strip in Karaçevo by a series of brigades of 63 Serbian paratroopers through training with an H125M helicopter and threats with parachutes a few meters from the border with the Republic of Kosovo constitute a dangerous display of aggression. This display becomes even more alarming when we remember that the same unit trained and supported the criminal group of Milan Radoicic, who carried out the aggressive terrorist attack in the village of Banjska, Zvecan, when he killed police sergeant Afrim Bunjaku, the hero of Kosovo," he said.

Regarding this situation, the head of the Government has called on Albanians in the Presheva Valley not to fall prey to provocations, while emphasizing that Kosovo institutions are vigilant against any kind of danger.

also Arberi 19 Tues 2026 KFOR calls Serbian army training a "routine activity": It poses no threat to security

READ ALSO: 

Albania has also reacted to the exercise in Bujanovac. The Albanian Minister of Defense, Ermal Nufi, has emphasized that the security of Albanian territories is guaranteed by NATO.

"The Republic of Serbia mitigates all the risks it claims, for its own problems, in accordance with its strategic and military documents, while the Republic of Albania, for its part, has all its security policies within the framework of the NATO alliance, and the NATO alliance is the strongest alliance in the world and therefore Albanians must be sure that all our doctrine, all the preparation of the armed forces is in accordance with NATO. And at this point, the security of the Albanian territories and Kosovo is ensured as long as the alliance is there and guaranteed by NATO", Nufi emphasized.

Meanwhile, the NATO mission in Kosovo - KFOR - has called the Serbian army's training in the Municipality of Bujanovac routine and announced.

According to KFOR, these Serbian army exercises do not pose a threat.

"We can confirm that KFOR was informed by the Serbian Armed Forces that a training activity with paratroopers was scheduled, to be dropped from a helicopter in the village of Muhoc, Serbia. This is a routine activity that takes place on the territory of Serbia and does not pose a threat to the security and stability of the region. The NATO mission, KFOR, continues to closely monitor the situation at the Administrative Border Line and in Kosovo, maintaining effective contact and coordination with local security authorities and the Chief of Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces," KFOR said in a response to KOHO.

The only Albanian MP in the Serbian Parliament, Shaip Kamberi, wrote in a Facebook post that such activities, especially when they take place near areas inhabited by Albanians and involve air capabilities, affect the security perceptions of local communities, especially Albanians in the Presevo Valley.

He added that in the context of regional security, these developments can be interpreted as factors that influence the increase in tensions and the decrease in trust between local actors.

also Arberi 19 Tues 2026 Kurti on exercises near the border: It's high time the world punished Serbia for its destabilizing approach

This is not the first time that Serbia has conducted exercises near the border with Kosovo. In the past, this country has been accused by the Kosovo authorities of sending the army too close to the border with it, which has been denied by official Belgrade. Tensions between the two countries have been even more tense since 2023, when the Kosovo authorities accused official Belgrade of the attack by a group of armed Serbs against the Kosovo Police, in which Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku was killed, as well as the explosion in the vital “Ibër-Lepenc” water canal. Serbia has also denied involvement in these two attacks in northern Kosovo, inhabited mainly by Serbs. Since then, the dialogue mediated by the European Union (EU) between Kosovo and Serbia has stalled and there have been no high-level meetings, despite the parties having agreed to normalize relations in early 2023.

Serbia, with its Constitution, continues to consider Kosovo as part of itself, although Kosovo declared independence in 2008. The two neighboring countries have been in talks to normalize relations since 2011. However, the Agreement on the Normalization of Relations, which the two countries reached in 2023 and which provides for mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, has never been implemented.