RTTue, 28 May 2019 20:07 UTC
© Agence France-Presse / Armend NimaniA member of the Kosovo Police Special Unit near the village of Cabra during the May 28, 2019 raids in the predominantly Serb north of Kosovo
Moscow is demanding the release of a Russian citizen who was detained and possibly injured during a Kosovan police incursion into the ethnic Serb-majority northern areas of the breakaway region.
Mikhail Krasnoshchekov, a Russian national and member of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) was among those detained during the early Tuesday raids by Kosovan special police forces (ROSU) in the region's northern areas, populated mostly by ethnic Serbs.
The man was injured in the operation and had to be hospitalized, according to a Mitrovica hospital medic cited by TASS.
The Russian embassy in Belgrade has demanded Krasnoshchekov's immediate release.
"We are outraged by the provocation against the Russian citizen, UNMIK member Mikhail Krasnoshchekov. We demand that the Russian be released immediately and all those responsible be held to account."
"The detention was carried out despite the fact that the Russian citizen has a UN employee's immunity," the Russian Foreign Ministry has said, condemning the incident as an
"outrageous act."Moscow earlier denounced the police raid, which Pristina said was aimed against an "organized crime network," as a provocation abetted by the US and the EU, and that it violated agreements between Belgrade and Pristina.
The two had made a spoken agreement that Kosovan forces would stay out of the Serb-majority north back in 2013, which has been repeatedly broken since.
At least 19 people were detained and several injured during Tuesday's raid as some locals resisted the ROSU incursion. Some of the worst clashes took place near the town of Zubin Potok, where barricades were put up and tires burned in an attempt to slow the police forces down.
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A Russian member of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is in hospital with serious head injuries after Kosovo police broke his cheekbone with a rifle-butt, despite him being unarmed, his doctor says.
The UN mission's spokeswoman Sanam Dolatshahi confirmed that Mikhail Krasnoshchekov had been released by police, while details of the injuries sustained during his arrest began to emerge.
"He has a head injury and a fracture of the zygomatic bone, which is classified as a serious injury. The injury occurred from a butt strike to the head, although the man was not armed," Krasnoshchekov's doctor said.
Krasnoshchekov sustained the injury as Kosovan special police raided four predominantly Serbian communities in the breakaway region's north, ostensibly as part of a crackdown on organized crime. The massive campaign involved the use of 73 special vehicles and ended in 23 arrests, according to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Despite the traumatic head injuries, UN Secretary General Farhan Haq announced that the UN worker was in "normal condition" upon release from police custody.
There is no update yet on a second UN mission employee who was also detained.
The president of the self-proclaimed territory of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, claimed that the detained mission member had "tried to prevent a police action."
Kosovo is ruled by savages who operate with impunity because they know they can always call in support from America's largest garrison in Europe, Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.
Comment: More information: Kosovo is ruled by savages who operate with impunity because they know they can always call in support from America's largest garrison in Europe, Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.