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Kosovo clashes’ instigators sought to fuel NATO-Serbia conflict, defense minister says

Aleksandar Vulin noted that he was disappointed with the reaction of the NATO-led international peacekeeping Kosovo Force, which had not notified Serbia about the planned operation

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. The organizers of recent clashes in Kosovo sought to stir up a military conflict between NATO and Serbia, Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said in an interview with the International Affairs magazine published on Tuesday.

"What is their goal? They want Serbia to give a military response and then they would go to their NATO allies and they would beg them: "Please protect us!" This is their goal. So NATO would punish Serbia for them. They know that they cannot start a military conflict alone, but they want NATO to do this for them," Vulin said.

The defense minister noted that he was disappointed with the reaction of the NATO-led international peacekeeping Kosovo Force (KFOR), which had not notified Serbia about the planned operation and stated that this political act did not concern it.

In the morning of May 28, special forces of the unrecognized republic of Kosovo launched a raid of the northern municipalities, and the subsequent gunfire resulted in two Serbs sustaining minor wounds. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told MPs that the Kosovo police special forces had put 28 people into custody, including Russian national Mikhail Krasnoshchekov, an employee of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The Russian diplomat was released on the same day and was later hospitalized in Belgrade with serious head and facial injuries. More than 100 people were beaten during the police raid, Serbia’s Vecherne Novosti newspaper reported.

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United Nations NATO Serbia

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