MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. The first contingent of 200 British soldiers arrived in Kosovo to reinforce NATO’s Kosovo Force, the alliance said in a statement.

The soldiers are joining the 400-strong UK contingent that’s already in Kosovo, according to the statement on the NATO website. KFOR currently consists of more than 4,500 troops.

According to the UK Defense Ministry, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discussed the situation in the region with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the president of breakaway Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, at the European Political Community summit in the Spanish city of Granada on Thursday, urging them to defuse tensions.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that armed masked men, supported by Serbian officials, attacked police officers in the north of the province overnight into September 24, killing one of them. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic later said in an address to the nation that Kosovo police units had killed three Serbs and that the NATO-led Kosovo Force had effectively given Kurti carte blanche to kill Serbs. He said KFOR members assisted Kosovo police in the operation against local Serbs. Vucic said that after what happened, Belgrade would never recognize the province's independence.