Kosovo’s Long Shadow: A Debate Aims to Clarify What Banjska Unleashed

Nearly two years after Banjska, Kosovo’s sovereignty remains under strain. A London debate will probe whether Western appeasement of Serbia fuels instability or preserves fragile stability.

LONDON — Nearly two years after a deadly firefight in the Kosovo village of Banjska exposed the region’s most dangerous fault lines, tensions remain high, institutions strained, and the politics of deterrence unsettled. What began on 24 September 2023 as a Kremlin-aligned, Serbia-backed armed incursion in the north, leaving a Kosovo police sergeant dead and several gunmen killed, has since hardened into a contest of narratives: Pristina’s demand for accountability versus Belgrade’s denials, Western calls for “de-escalation” versus local claims of impunity.

In Pristina, officials argue that Banjska was not an aberration but the visible crest of a longer campaign of hybrid pressure: boycotts of local institutions, intimidation, and what Kosovo authorities describe as sabotage aimed at halting the consolidation of the state in Serb-majority municipalities. In Belgrade, leaders reject responsibility for the attack, while critics of Serbia point to deepening ties with Moscow and Beijing as …