The spectre of a second war in Europe looms large with tensions extraordinarily high in Kosovo
They move efficiently down the mountain paths and through the brush.
The Kosovo police are reasserting their authority in these northern territories after gunmen stormed the village of Banjske in the valley below.
The attack, by more than thirty heavily armed ethnic Serb paramilitaries in late September was the worst explosion of violence in this nascent state for many years.
Pic: Alex Rossi
Pic: Alex Rossi
The siege lasted many hours and cost the life of one police officer – it also raised the spectre that another Balkan conflagration may be simmering below the surface of what for many had been a period of relative calm.
The reasons behind the uprising are disputed and point to the complications that are knitted into the fabric of life here, it also means there’s no room for complacency.
What is undeniable is that tensions remain extraordinarily high and the spectre of another war in Europe looms large, ringing alarm bells in Brussels and across the Atlantic in Washington DC.
The government in Kosovo claims that the attack was orchestrated in Belgrade. They point to the heavy weapons the paramilitaries used – they could, they argued, only have been obtained through ties to the state.
The Kosovo prime minister, Albin Kurti, appears visibly outraged and frustrated during an interview with Sky News. He’s demanding the international community takes a harder line with his Serbian neighbour.
Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti
“They deny because they are playing with Putin‘s playbook in Donbas. Little green men in northern part of Kosova. Not that little, but green men for sure, who wanted to start a war and divide Kosova,” he says.
The antecedents of this latest round of violence run deep. But the peace in Kosovo is undoubtedly fragile. It’s a complex patchwork of ethnicities and divided communities.
In Mitrovica, the closest city to Banjske, the splits are visible.
Read more:
Why have tensions flared up between Kosovo and Serbia and why are British troops being sent there?
The divided town of Mitrovica.
On one side of the river, Kosovan Albanians, and on the other, Serbs – both communities fly their flags proudly and both sides have very different views about what should happen. It’s like two nations living under one roof, in a microcosm.
They are united in their concern about where all this could be leading.
Milos Gvozdic, an ethnic Serb, is clear: “We don’t want war or something else, we just want to be calm here, we need peace or something like that.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Why British troops are going to Kosovo?
Biondina Muzliukaj, an ethnic Albanian, is also fearful.
“For us it’s not easy to know that we cannot freely go to the north side, work there, we know that it’s our place, we know that it’s our city, but because of the tensions and because we are afraid that something can happen to us we cannot really freely move in that area.”
Mitrovica. Pic: Alex Rossi
In Serbia, there’s also frustration at events. The government denies it had any role in the violence. It claims that it was an act of resistance to hardline nationalist policies which they claim are causing fear amongst the minority ethnic Serb population.
But President Aleksandar Vucic says he knows why this is happening.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic
“Everybody can understand, because those people were mainly expelled from their thresholds. Many of them were shot by Kosovo police, even kids, 11 years old, and no one was held accountable for that.”
It is hard to see a way out at the moment. Mediation talks by the EU have broken down and they’re unlikely to resume during this present period of crisis.
Mitrovica. Pic: Alex Rossi
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008 after a bloody war in the late 1990s.
But Serbia and most ethnic Serbs living here have never recognised its independence. And that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
For the moment though, more British peacekeepers have been drafted in under the NATO umbrella to stop another eruption of violence.
An audacious Ukrainian drone attack against multiple airbases across Russia is a humiliating security breach for Vladimir Putin that will doubtless trigger a furious response.
Pro-Kremlin bloggers have described the drone assault – which Ukrainian security sources said hit more than 40 Russian warplanes – as “Russia’s Pearl Harbor” in reference to the Japanese attack against the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter the Second World War.
Ukraine war latest: Russia accuses Kyiv of ‘terrorist attack’
The Ukrainian operation – which used small drones smuggled into Russia, hidden in mobile sheds and launched off the back of trucks – also demonstrated how technology and imagination have transformed the battlefield, enabling Ukraine to seriously hurt its far more powerful opponent.
Moscow will have to retaliate, with speculation already appearing online about whether President Putin will again threaten the use of nuclear weapons.
“We hope that the response will be the same as the US response to the attack on their Pearl Harbor or even harsher,” military blogger Roman Alekhin wrote on his Telegram channel.
Codenamed ‘Spider’s Web’, the mission on Sunday was the culmination of one and a half years of planning, according to a security source.
In that time, Ukraine’s secret service smuggled first-person view (FPV) drones into Russia, sources with knowledge of the operation said.
Flat-pack, garden-office style sheds were also secretly transported into the country.
The drones were hidden in truck containers. Pic: SBU Security Service
The oblong sheds were then built and drones were hidden inside, before the containers were put on the back of trucks and driven to within range of their respective targets.
At a chosen time, doors on the roofs of the huts were opened remotely and the drones were flown out. Each was armed with a bomb that was flown into the airfields, with videos released by the security service that purportedly showed them blasting into Russian aircraft.
These drones were used to destroy Russian bomber aircraft. Pic: SBU Security Service
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Among the targets were Tu-95 and Tu-22 bomber aircraft that can launch cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian side. An A-50 airborne early warning aircraft was also allegedly hit. This is a valuable platform that is used to command and control operations.
The use of such simple technology to destroy multi-million-pound aircraft will be watched with concern by governments around the world.
Suddenly, every single military base, airfield and warship will appear that little bit more vulnerable if any truck nearby could be loaded with killer drones.
Read more:
Russia investigates bridge collapses
What new Stalin statue says about Putin’s regime
The most immediate focus, though, will be on how Mr Putin responds.
Previous attacks by Ukraine inside Russia have triggered retaliatory strikes and increasingly threatening rhetoric from the Kremlin.
But this latest operation is one of the biggest and most significant, and comes on the eve of a new round of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv that are meant to take place in Turkey. It is not clear if that will still happen.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for the two sides to make peace but Russia has only escalated its war.
Ukraine clearly felt it had nothing to lose but to also go on the attack.
Two people are dead and nearly 560 people were arrested after disorder broke out in France following Paris Saint-Germain’s victory in the Champions League final, the French interior ministry has said.
The ministry added 192 people were injured and there were 692 fires, including 264 involving vehicles.
A 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in the city of Dax during a PSG street party after Saturday night’s final in Munich, the national police service said.
The second person killed was a man who was hit by a car while riding a scooter during PSG celebrations, the interior minister’s office said.
Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez has said the man was in his 20s and although the incident is still being investigated, it appears his death was linked to the disorder.
Meanwhile, French authorities have reported that a police officer is in a coma following the clashes.
A burning bike on the Champs Elysees during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
The officer had been hit by a firecracker that emerged from a crowd of supporters in Coutances in the Manche department of northwestern France, according to reports in the country.
Initial investigations reportedly suggest the incident was accidental and the police officer was not deliberately targeted.
The perpetrator has not been identified.
A man walks past teargas during incidents after the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan. Pic: AP
A burning bike on the Champs Elysees during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
The interior ministry earlier said 22 security forces workers were injured during the chaos – including 18 who were injured in Paris, along with seven firefighters.
In a news conference today, Mr Nuñez said only nine of the force’s officers had been injured in the French capital.
He added that fireworks were directed at police and firefighters were attacked while responding to car fires.
There were 559 arrests across the country during the disorder, including 491 in Paris. Of those detained across the country, 320 were taken into police custody – with 254 in the French capital.
Mr Nuñez said although most people wanted to celebrate PSG’s win, some only wanted to get involved in fights with police.
He also said the force is only at “half-time” in its response because the PSG team will be celebrating their Champions League victory on the Champs Élysées later today.
Police in Paris during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
Police in Paris during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
Mr Nuñez said that the police presence and military presence in Paris will be increased on the ground for the parade.
It comes after flares and fireworks were set off in the French capital after PSG beat Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich – the biggest ever victory in a Champions League final.
Around 5,400 police were deployed across Paris after the game, with officers using tear gas and pepper spray on the Champs Élysées.
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
At the top of the Champs Élysées, a water cannon was used to protect the Place de l’Etoile, near the landmark Arc de Triomphe.
Police said a large crowd not watching the match tried to push through a barrier to make contact with officers.
Some 131 arrests were made, including 30 who broke into a shoe shop on the Champs Élysées.
Police have said a total of four shops, including a car dealership and a barbers, were targeted during the disorder in Paris.
Two cars were set alight close to Parc des Princes, police said.
PSG forward Ousmane Dembélé appealed for calm in a post-match interview with Canal+, saying: “Let’s celebrate this but not tear everything up in Paris.”
Pics: AP
After the final played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, thousands of supporters also tried to rush the field.
Police lined up in front of the PSG end of the stadium at the final whistle, but struggled to contain the fans for several minutes when they came down from the stands following the trophy presentation.
Pics: AP
Désiré Doué, the 19-year-old who scored two goals and assisted one in the final, said after the game: “I don’t have words. But what I can say is, ‘Thank you Paris,’ we did it.”
Despite being a supporter of PSG’s rivals Olympique de Marseille, French President Emmanuel Macron also said on social media: “A glorious day for PSG!
“Bravo, we are all proud. Paris, the capital of Europe this evening.”
Mr Macron’s office said the president would receive the players at the Elysee Palace on Sunday.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Three patients have been killed and dozens of other people were reportedly injured after a fire at a hospital in Germany.
The blaze broke out in a room in the geriatric ward of the Marienkrankenhaus early on Sunday.
It started on the ground floor and spread to the level above, with smoke affecting much of the four-storey building in the city of Hamburg.
Firefighters were alerted soon after midnight.
They said they found several patients calling for help from windows, and some people were rescued using ladders.
Pic: AP
Pic: Reuters
Three adults died and more than 30 were injured in the fire, the German news agency dpa said.
One of the injured is in a life-threatening condition, while 18 have serious injuries and 15 have minor injuries, the agency added.
Read more from Sky News:
Two dead and hundreds of arrests in France after PSG win
Britain has ‘lost control’ of its borders, says minister
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Part of the building had to be evacuated, though the wounded were mostly treated at the hospital.
Two injured people were taken to other nearby clinics.
The blaze was put out within about 20 minutes. The cause is not yet known.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway