Kosovo: Political and Social Impact One Year After the Start of Russia's War of Aggression against Ukraine

Kosovo considers itself as part of the western community and is condemning the Russian aggression in Ukraine and applies likewise sanctions to Russia. That position has its origin also in the fact, that Russia is seen as a close ally to Serbia, which is still not recognizing Kosovos independence and backs Serbia on that issue in international organizations. The conflict and escalations between Kosovo and Serbia in the last year are not directly related to the war in Ukraine, but Serbia and Serbs in Kosovo receive verbal backing by Russia. Vice versa Kosovo´s government underlines the opposition between the westbound Kosovo and Russia related Serbia and hopes that that the west will put more pressure on Serbia to achieve an agreement in the dialogue with Serbia. Nevertheless, Kosovo is disappointed, that the west is not applying more pressure on Serbia. Economically the war in Ukraine did provoke inflation and energy issues that may cause even more migration in the future. The current goal in Kosovar-Serbian-Relations must be an agreement with Serbia not to hinder Kosovo´s membership in international organizations. Connecting the issue to the war in Ukraine will not be helpful for the country.

The full-length publication is only available in German.