BELGRADE, December 28. /TASS/. The peace in Kosovo and Metohija has been preserved, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on his Instagram (banned in Russia since it is owned by Meta, deemed extremist in Russia) account.

"I am certain that it is a good day for Serbia today, that we have preserved peace and obtained guarantees of security and survival for the Serbs," Vucic said.

The President added that he will depart to the city of Raska on the administrative line with Kosovo and Metohija to meet with the representatives of Kosovan Serbs.

"Whatever the people’s decision is, I will accept it, and we will preserve the Serbian unity," he noted.

Earlier, Vucic called on the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija to disassemble the barricades and return to their homes after the US and the EU provided guarantees of security to Serbs that participated in the protests. Before that, Pristina started to release the detained Kosovan Serbs.

Previously the authorities of unrecognized Kosovo put their armed forces on full alert. In response, Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic and Minister of the Interior Bratislav Gasic said that the Serbian armed forces and police were also put on full alert under the order of the Commander-in-Chief, President Aleksandar Vucic.

The situation in Kosovo and Metohija escalated abruptly on December 6, when the regional special forces, accompanied by patrols of the EU mission to Kosovo, started capturing electoral commissions in the northern part of Kosovo and Metohija. The Serb population organized itself and pushed the Kosovars back past the River Ibar. On December 8, some 350 Kosovan police invaded the Serb-populated north of the autonomous region on armored vehicles and blocked the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica. On December 10, the Kosovo police arrested a Serb ex-policeman Dejan Pantic under a contrived pretext. In response, the Serb population blocked highways in several settlements with barricades.