Kosovo police officers stand guard on the road to Banjska monastery, in the aftermath of a shooting incident, near Zvecan, Kosovo September 25, 2023.
REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski Acquire Licensing RightsMOSCOW, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday it was closely monitoring what it called a "potentially dangerous" situation in Kosovo, where ethnic Serb gunmen stormed a village at the weekend, battling police and barricading themselves into a monastery.
Russia does not recognise Kosovo, which has a majority ethnic Albanian population, as an independent country and traditionally supports Serbia, with which it has close religious and cultural ties.
The situation is very, very tense and potentially dangerous, we are monitoring it very closely," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing.
Ethnic Albanians form the vast majority of the 1.8 million population of Kosovo, a former province of Serbia.
Persons:
Ognen, Dmitry Peskov, Gareth Jones, Mark Trevelyan
Organizations:
REUTERS, Rights, Kosovar, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
Banjska, Zvecan, Kosovo, Russia, Serbia, Belgrade, Kosovo Albanian, Serbian