Kosovo President: Wagner, Serbian Paramilitary Trafficking Arms, Preparing Attack on Kosovo

Vjosa Osmani (BetaPhoto/Armenija Zajmi Besevic)

Kosovo President Vojsa Osmani said on Feb. 11 that mercenaries belonging to the Russian Wagner paramilitary group were working with Serbian paramilitary forces to smuggle weapons and military uniforms into Kosovo to prepare "an attack on Kosovo."

Osmani told the British Telegraph that "the secret operation is designed to lay the groundwork for a potential hybrid attack by Serbia to grab Kosovan territory," the Pristina Koha reported. She said the alleged preparations "bear parallels to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, when Russian soldiers wearing uniforms stripped of any insignia, dubbed 'little green men,' prepared the way for the peninsula’s secession from Moscow."

"They bring in weapons and uniforms but they are not formally part of the Serbian army. Serbia wants to achieve its aims without it being called a military operation," The Telegraph quoted Osmani as saying. According to her, Serbia's goal is to "prepare the situation for a possible annexation - not through a traditional military operation but through a hybrid sort of attack."

Osmani said Belgrade was continuing to stoke tensions in the region, in cooperation with the Russian Wagner Group, which recently launched a campaign seeking recruits for the war in Ukraine in Serbia.