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West pandering to aggravation in Kosovo, Ukraine — Russian ambassador

On Friday, an ethnic Albanian wounded two Serbs, including a minor, during Christmas Eve celebrations

BELGRADE, January 9. /TAS/. The West’s connivance leads to the aggravation of the conflict in Ukraine and in the unrecognized republic of Kosovo, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said on Monday.

"The few EU representatives who seemed to try to comment on the crimes in Kosovo are hushing the circumstances of what happened. Hence, they share responsibility for Pristina’s continuing policy of intimidating the Serb population and, consequently, their expulsion from this territory," the press service of the Russian embassy quoted him as saying.

"Likewise, the West is turning a blind eye to the Donbass tragedy and the barbaric shelling attacks against civilians by Ukrainian radicals. A lot of children have been killed by the Kiev regime from weapons supplied by the United States and EU countries. The inhumanity of the West is limitless as is the widespread indulgence in the atrocities of their proteges," he said.

"The series of ethnically-motivated attacks staged by the local Albanians on Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija during the Christmas holidays, with an 11-year-old child being among them, is alarming and dismaying," the Russian diplomat said. "The Pristina radicals, led by local ‘Prime Minister’ Kurti, continue to whip up Serbophobic moods under the West’s passive eye. In this context, I would like to note that Kosovo Force’s (KFOR) refusal to satisfy Belgrade’s request to send Serb policemen and soldiers to Kosovo to ensure the security of compatriots under UN Security Council resolution 1244 was shamelessly conveyed on the evening of January 6, immediately after an attack by a Kosovo Albanian on Serb children," he added.

On Friday, an ethnic Albanian wounded two Serbs, including a minor, during Christmas Eve celebrations. Shots were fired from a moving car near the city of Strpce. An 11-year-old boy and a 21-year-old young man were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the NATO-led international security force in Kosovo (KFOR) had turned down Serbia’s request to deploy some 1,000 Serb policemen and military to Kosovo.