Following rising tensions between Kosovar authorities and the local Serb minority, NATO forces based on the territory clashed with Serb demonstrators in the Serb majority town of Zvecan on May 29. Serbian sources reported that Serb minority demonstrators staging a sit down protest outside municipal buildings were confronted by heavily armed members of NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR), who surrounded the demonstrators throwing threw stun grenades and tear gas into the crowd. This provoked retaliation with rocks, after which NATO troops escalated using batons and rubber bullets.

Unrest has been ongoing for days in Serbian minority regions of northern Kosovo after controversial municipal elections resulted in ethnic Albanian mayors being installed in Serb-dominant communities. But what started as clashes between ethnic Serbs and Kosovo police has spiraled into violence as NATO troops have struggled to crackdown on raging protests.

The US and its allies are “playing with fire” by doubling down on their support for Kiev amid the conflict with Moscow, including by planning to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

“Of course, it’s an unacceptable escalation,” Lavrov stated regarding potential deliveries of American-made warplanes to Kiev in an interview with Russia 1 TV on Sunday.

“I think there are reasonable people in the West who understand this. But everything is being dictated by Washington, London, and their satellites inside the EU,”

Russia’s ambassador to the UK has warned of an escalation in the Ukraine war as the UK and other Western allies commit increasingly advanced weapons to aid Kyiv. Speaking on the BBC, Andrei Kelin blamed NATO, “especially” the UK for risk lengthening and triggering a “new dimension” to the war.

President of Serbia and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, signed an order to raise the combat readiness of the Serbian Armed Forces.

The President of Serbia and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, signed an order to raise the combat readiness of the units of the Serbian Armed Forces to the highest level.

He ordered an urgent movement in the direction of the administrative line with Kosovo and Metohija….

NATO plans to support Ukraine by creating a Ukraine-NATO Council during the July summit in Vilnius instead of giving it a concrete plan for becoming a full-fledged member, for which Kiev has repeatedly requested, the European news outlet reported on Friday, citing sources.

NATO diplomats told media that the alliance will have to find the right balance between maintaining the open-door policy and supporting Kiev's aspirations without directly admitting the country to the bloc.

The Serbian armed forces have been put on high combat alert based on a decree issued by President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Aleksandar Vucic, the Vecernje Novosti newspaper reported on Friday.

Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently traveled to Texas in an effort to maintain support among prominent elected Republicans for the Ukraine War.

The possible transfer of nuclear weapons to Ukraine from the West will cause a preemptive strike by Russia, said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.

The statement was made during his visit to Vietnam.

Medvedev explained that the allies of Ukraine can put into service not only F-16 fighters, which is no longer excluded, but also nuclear weapons.

NATO is using the Ukraine crisis as an excuse to build up its forces in Eastern Europe and deploy weapons which are being aimed at Russia and Belarus, Moscow’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu claimed on Thursday during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Viktor Khrenin.