Kosovo Closes Two Border Crossings With Serbia After Protest

Police officers stand guard as protestors partially block the road near the main Kosovo-Serbia border crossing in Merdare, Serbia September 6, 2024. REUTERS/Valdrin Xhemaj
Police officers stand guard as protestors partially block the road near the main Kosovo-Serbia border crossing in Merdare, Serbia September 6, 2024. REUTERS/Valdrin Xhemaj
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Kosovo Closes Two Border Crossings With Serbia After Protest

Police officers stand guard as protestors partially block the road near the main Kosovo-Serbia border crossing in Merdare, Serbia September 6, 2024. REUTERS/Valdrin Xhemaj
Police officers stand guard as protestors partially block the road near the main Kosovo-Serbia border crossing in Merdare, Serbia September 6, 2024. REUTERS/Valdrin Xhemaj

Kosovo said on Saturday it had closed two border crossings with Serbia after protesters on Serbian soil partially blocked roads and turned back passengers with Kosovo documents in protest over recent tensions in Kosovo's volatile north.
A small group of protesters gathered a few kilometers inside Serbia, near at least three border crossings, and were checking whether drivers had Kosovo-issued travel documents.
"Masked extremists groups inside Serbian territory are selectively and with a fascist approach stopping citizens who use Serbia as transit," Kosovo's interior minister, Xhelal Svecla, said on his Facebook page, announcing the closure of crossings in Merdare and Bernjak.
Four other borders between the Balkan neighbors remained open, Reuters said.
The group was protesting against Pristina's recent actions in northern Kosovo, mainly inhabited by ethnic Serbs, which closed Belgrade-run parallel institutions.
Some 50,000 Serbs live in that area and, like Serbia, do not recognise Kosovo's independence. They consider Belgrade their capital.
In the past two years, northern Kosovo has experienced its worst ethnic tensions since the Albanian-majority country declared independence in 2008 after a years-long guerrilla uprising against repressive Serbian rule.
Although Kosovo is recognised by more than 100 countries, Serbia deems it part of Serbian territory. It accuses Kosovo's central government of trampling on the rights of ethnic Serbs and denies accusations of whipping up strife within its neighbor's borders.



Russia Hits Civilian and Critical Infrastructure, Injures 10 in Ukraine

A woman stands in the backyard of her house destroyed by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 10, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
A woman stands in the backyard of her house destroyed by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 10, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
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Russia Hits Civilian and Critical Infrastructure, Injures 10 in Ukraine

A woman stands in the backyard of her house destroyed by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 10, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
A woman stands in the backyard of her house destroyed by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 10, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

Attacks by Russian forces on Ukraine overnight and on Thursday across the country hit civilian and critical infrastructure facilities, injuring at least 10 people, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russia launched two ballistic missiles on the southern city of Mykolaiv in the early afternoon, targeting critical infrastructure, regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said.
Two people were wounded and a piece of equipment destroyed, he said in televised comments, without giving more details.
Russian troops also shelled Kherson and damaged energy equipment, according to Roman Mrochko, head of the southern city's military administration. Several settlements and part of the city were facing power outages, he said.
Separately, a flurry of Russian guided bombs early in the morning injured six people, including a 17-year-old girl, and damaged 29 buildings in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, its regional governor Ivan Fedorov, said.
Ukraine's air force said on the Telegram messaging app that it had downed 41 out of 62 drones launched by Russia. Russian forces also launched eight missiles, it added, while 14 drones were "locationally lost".
"As a result of the Russian missile and drone attacks civilian objects and critical infrastructure facilities in the Odesa, Poltava and Donetsk regions were hit," Reuters quoted it as saying.
A drone attack on the central city of Kryvyi Rih injured two people and damaged a five-storey residential building, causing a fire, Dnipropetrovsk region governor, Serhiy Lysak, said.
The emergency services rescued seven people from the damaged part of the building and put out the fire at the site, he added.
Separately, a cruise missile attack late on Wednesday damaged a storage area at an infrastructure facility in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv, causing a blaze that was later extinguished, the governor said.
Regional authorities also reported late on Wednesday that a ballistic missile attack had hit port infrastructure in the Odesa region, killing eight people and damaging a Panama-flagged container ship.