Kosovo’s leader, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, has warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine would undermine 25 years of peace, freedom and democracy in the Balkan region and encourage Serbian expansionism. Kosovo’s leader since 2021, Kurti urged the West to stand united in support of Ukraine in face of the Russian invasion. A stronger Russia would embolden Serbia’s expansionist ambitions, he noted, and this would put not just Kosovo but also Bosnia, Montenegro and “perhaps North Macedonia” at risk.
Prime Minister Kurti delivered a speech on the connection between Geopolitics and European Integration, with special attention to the Western Balkans, within the sessions of the Warsaw Security Forum (WSF).
While the 1999 NATO bombing campaign ended the war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, Serbia has refused to recognise Kosovo’s independence, proclaimed in 2008. Despite 13 years of normalisation talks spearheaded by the European Union (EU), Kosovo and Serbia remain at loggerheads. Adding to the complexity, a shootout in September last year between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police left four people dead. NATO-led peacekeepers have increased their numbers along the border between Kosovo and Serbia.
Asked what it would mean for Kosovo and the Balkans in general were Russia to prevail in Ukraine, Kurti, said “with Serbia being a regional hegemon and Russian proxy, these 25 years of peace, freedom and democracy in the Balkans, unprecedented in our history, are at risk again.” A victory in Ukraine for Vladimir Putin, whom the Kosovo leader described as “despotic”, would encourage the Russian president “to proceed further with his destabilization attempts”.
Kurti was interviewed by the Associated Press in Warsaw where he is visiting as Poland makes preparations to assume the rotating presidency of the 27-member EU in January. EU membership is a major goal for Kosovo, with five member states — Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia — yet to recognise Kosovo, much less its bid for candidacy.
Kurti did point out that earlier this year Spain began to recognize Kosovo passports. A small step, he acknowledged, but not sufficient to constitute the “one big necessary step, which is [outright] recognition.”
Kosovo, where 90% of the 1.6 million population is Albanian, holds parliamentary elections next February. Kurti’s party won by a landslide in 2021.
