Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti: Europe and whole democratic world
need Ukraine’s victory.
Albin Kurti has been the Prime Minister of Kosovo since 2021 has supported Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.
He understands the high price that the Ukrainians pay for freedom because more than 25 years ago Albin Kurti was a student leader fighting for independence of Kosovo.
In an interview with UNIAN the Prime Minister of Kosovo spoke about helping Ukraine, the prospects for cooperation between two countries, how Kosovo’s post-war experience could help Ukrainians, why Russia is dangerous for its neighbors and why Ukraine’s victory is necessary for Europe.
Are you following the war in Ukraine? Is it important for Kosovo?
- We follow events in Ukraine because we are appalled by Russia’s illegal,
unprovoked, unjustified military aggression and invasion of Ukraine. We follow
Ukraine because we want Ukraine to win. And victory for Ukraine means the
liberation of all its territory, peace and security for all its citizens, state
sovereignty and human rights for all. Ukraine is a democratic country and
Ukraine’s struggle is the fight for democracy with which we identify. Firstly, the
war started in Ukraine, all the memories from the past got back in our minds
and souls. So it also was very difficult for the people of Kosovo to watch that
criminal terrorist march of aggression towards Ukraine they had experienced in
1998 -1999.
- Secondly, the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February 2022 had an
impact on the social and psychological situation in Kosovo among our people,
because the trauma of more than two decades ago has returned to the
consciousness of the people.
- The third reason our support is more political and has to do with the
possible spillover effect of this war in the Balkans, because we imagine that
Russia certainly has plans to expand the wars it’s waging, including our Balkan
region.
At the Ukrainian Independence Day, you said that the war in Ukraine is the
European war and the war for Europe. Are the European allies doing
enough for Ukraine, what is your opinion?
- Ukraine is in Europe, and in the past we used to think, from our
geography lessons, that Europe extended to the Urals mountain ring. But now
we see that Europe ends where the front line for the liberation of Ukraine is. In
this sense, the war of the Ukrainian people is not only for democracy, but also
for Europe, because the Russian Federation wants to expand at the expense of
Europe, and the Ukrainians fight for the benefit of Europe.
- I believe that the member states of the European Union have generally
been very good at accepting refugees. I think there has been a sort of high level
of hospitality. But that is not enough. It is more of a humanitarian aspect. It’s not
enough to take in refugees. It’s important to help the country and the people to
liberate themselves. And we know that there are Ukrainians fighting, but there
are also Ukrainians in the occupied territories, and for those Ukrainians in the
occupied territories every day is a day of terror and horror. So I think that the
European Union has reached a higher degree of unity thanks to the Ukrainian
war. But I still believe that they could do better and more because of the Russian
aggression in Ukraine and the Ukrainian struggle for independence and
freedom.
- NATO has expanded after Sweden and Finland joined the organization.
But what is needed now is for the EU to enlarge as well, and for the EU member
states to do more in terms of helping and supporting the liberation struggle, in
terms of increasing the resilience of the people and the state institutions. And
also in terms of getting better and better armed to drive out the Russian army
and Russian forces. I’m not fully aware who does what, but I know it’s a lot, but
it can be better and more. And obviously, in my view, Ukraine needs more.
Ukraine hasn’t recognized Kosovo’s independence yet. Some experts said
that Ukraine didn’t recognize Kosovo because of Crimea, which was
annexed by Russia in 2014. Are these situations similar?
- These are opposite cases, because Crimea was occupied by a foreign power, by
the Russian Federation, whereas Kosova was liberated. Kosova has 92%
Albanians who wanted liberation from Serbia, then all other minorities wanted
liberation from Serbia. They all wanted liberation. Also, not a small number of Serbs, who are 4% of the population, also want to live here and not to be under
the directives of Belgrade. So when we were liberated, we had our own people’s
uprising led by the Kosovo Liberation Army, and then Serbia started the
genocide. Actually, it was not the first genocide.
- The genocide that Serbia was conducting against our people was also in the late
19th century, then during the Balkan wars, the First World War and the Second
World War and the aftermath.
- In 1999, 19 NATO members jointly decided to bomb a European country,
Serbia. Today we can see that 19 countries cannot approve a press release on
certain issues. Can you imagine 19 countries saying together – yes, we should
bomb them? It was very bad. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible. And
Russia wants to compare itself with NATO, but Russia is an authoritarian
criminal state. The 19 members of NATO were democratic countries with
opposition in every country. So these governments, they risk losing elections,
but they said Serbia should be bombed. The situation was such that the
liberation of Kosovo with the uprising of the people and the Kosovo Liberation
Army. And the intervention of NATO cannot be compared with the occupation
of Crimea.
- One time a journalist challenged me some years ago and said that our
movement is called self-determination, which is the name of the party I lead. He
asked what about self-determination in Crimea, because there was a referendum
too. And I said that self-determination is democratic, comes from the people,
not above. In the Crimean referendum, I saw Russian soldiers in those regions
carrying ballot boxes. You can’t have soldiers from another country carrying
ballot boxes and pretend that it’s a democratic referendum or an exercise in
self-determination, and there was no follow-up question.
Did you have contact with Ukrainian authorities? Do you see some progress
in contacting Ukraine’s and Kosovo’s leaders?
- I had the opportunity to dine with President Zelensky and other Balkan leaders
in Athens. I did not have a separate meeting with him. Before that I had a
telephone conversation with the Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba. I also met
him during the World Economic Forum in Davos, again with other Balkan
leaders. We did not have a separate meeting.
- I think there have been some false analogies, false parallels between the
situation in Donbass in Crimea and Kosovo. As far as I am concerned, if there is
a parallel, it is between some pro-Russian forces and illegal structures of Russia
in Crimea and Donbass, and with some of Serbia’s parallel structures that we
have in Kosovo, especially in the north. If you want to draw a parallel, it should
be this other kind of parallel.
Maybe recognition of Kosovo would be in the future, but your country is
helping us now. Why? What kind of help is this?
- We are part of the Demining Coalition within the Ukraine Defence Contact
Group. The coalition is led by Lithuania and includes 22 countries. More than
100 Ukrainians have been trained in mine clearance. The training was
conducted by the MAT Kosovo organisation in cooperation with the Kosovo
Security Force. I am sure that Kosovo’s deminers have very good experience in
demining post-war areas. Our army, the Kosovo Security Force, has provided
training at the Search and Rescue Training Centre, as well as training in
chemical, nuclear and biological protection.
- Our Ministry of Defence together with the Ministry of Defence of the United
Kingdom, within the framework of the Interflex cooperation is training the
recruits of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in combat tactics. So far, 34,000 recruits
have been trained in this operation. And we have delivered two packages of
military assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces.
- The first package contains military tactical trucks and other vehicles. The
second package contains 10,000 mortar shells of various calibers.
We have adopted all 13 the EU sanctions packages against Russia, Belarus and
their proxies. We have also supported all the US sanctions from the beginning,
we have banned the entry of people with Russian passports or resident cards.
However, there are some exceptions, such as diplomats. The Kosovo Assembly
has approved a resolution for the possible reception to 5000 refugees from
Ukraine. We have unilaterally and temporarily lifted the visa regime for citizens
of Ukraine.
- We also decided and approved the programme to host and support 20 Ukrainian
journalists. Now there are 14 journalists living and working in Kosovo for the
Ukrainian media.
- So this is in our capacity that we have done for about two reasons. One is
humanitarian aid. One, we feel that it is our duty, when someone is in need, we
should show solidarity because that’s what makes us human. And secondly,
because we believe that the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state are on the
right side of history, in which we believe as well.
Kosovo now is 25 years after the war. What kind of experience of your
country would be useful for Ukraine after the war?
- After the war here in Kosovo, the United Nations has been very helpful to us
here in terms of humanitarian beliefs, the return of refugees and keeping the
peace. But at that time, after the war, we were liberated, but we didn’t get
independence, so we were under the UN system. Although the UN was good at
the humanitarian part, not at democracy and development. However, if I have a
suggestion, after the devastation of war, there is always this drive for so-called
privatization, as if you know this approach, you have been destroyed.
- You have nothing, you have had to sell everything and then privatization, and
that was a big mistake here. So for liberal markets, you don’t need privatization.
Publicly owned companies, and privately owned companies can compete in a
free market. So beware of big corporations that want to buy developmental
capacities, production facilities or lands as such, or resources very cheap
because you’re destroyed. Privatization drives big corporations in devastated
situations after the war where people are very hungry and thirsty for investment,
and can be abused.
- And the second thing is that for all the donors and the grants that you get, you
have to be at the top as the coordinator. You must have your own program with
strategy, projects, activities, and then you tell the donors what you need, so the
demand should precede the offer, not the other way around.
- Here are two suggestions, no to big privatization, and whenever there is help
and donors, you control and you ask what you need, because you could end up
in getting what you don’t need.
And what about the punishment of war crimes? Is it possible?
- It must be possible. But I don’t think it will be easy without democratic changes
in the Russian Federation. Because even if the Russian army leaves Ukraine,
goes back to Russia, I do not see how all the war criminals that you have identified are going to be treated to a fair trial.
- And you know, the despotic President Putin is indicted, but who is going to arrest him?
- I think that impunity is going to be very frustrating. It is important to have good documentation of crimes.
- That’s very important. But then to bring people to justice is going to take
a long time, and it’s not going to be easy unless there are democratic changes in
the Russian Federation, which, to be honest, I don’t see happening any time.
- I think that Moscow and other Russian archives have all the evidence of
genocide in Ukraine. Because the killings that the Russian army and
paramilitaries are doing in Ukraine are not the result of some reckless soldiers
and officers drinking too much vodka. There are Kremlin plans for this, and
these plans are in archives, and these archives should be opened one day.
How is it possible to live near the neighbor who wants to kill your people?
Do you have some recommendations for the Ukrainians after the war?
- The neighbor who is not good should stay in his house. We cannot change
history. We cannot change geography, but we can have a better future. And that
is with firmness and clarity, Ukraine will need a strong army even after
liberation, and will not relax until Russia becomes a democracy. So that means,
in the case of Russia, also perhaps becoming a republic or a federation of
republics rather than an 18th-century empire.
- You cannot sleep well if your neighbor wants to be an empire. And that is the
problem we have with Serbia. Serbia is called a republic, but if you look closely,
it behaves and acts like a monarchy, where the president has too much power
not to respect human rights, pluralism and all these laws.
Serbia didn’t join anti-Russian sanctions, and it is one of the countries that
is continuing to cooperate with Russia. You said that it is a small Russia in
the Balkans, isn’t it?
- Yes, I think that Serbia is a small Russia in Balkan. Serbia and Russia are
currently engaged in cooperation and military activities. It is interesting that
Serbia has signed a free trade agreement with Russia.
- In addition to Gazprom, Serbia has accepted Lukoil, Russian Railways, BTB
Bank, Rosatom, Roscosmos and Sberbank. From February to June 2022, 360
new companies and 960 entrepreneurs from the Russian Federation were
registered in Serbia.
- Yandex LLC, a Russian technology company, has confirmed that it will open a
new office in Serbia with 2000 employees. Andrei Kirnov, head of the Russian
trade mission in Serbia, announced that the office would become the company’s
main branch for Europe. Russia is Serbia’s fourth largest trading partner after
Germany, China and Italy.
- Belgrade has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia over the conflict
in eastern Ukraine. So before the Russian aggression, Serbia was completely
with Russia. And then, on one or two occasions, they voted in favor of Ukraine,
but they prepared the ground internationally for the aggression, and now, in
order to get some Western money, they sometimes either abstain or they say we
support the territorial integrity of Ukraine because Kosova is ours.
How is it possible to fight against information aggression? We have the
same problems with Russia. I am sure that Russia and Serbia have waged
hybrid warfare.
- In Kosovo, we don’t have any source of destabilization that we can’t deal with
and emerge victorious. But some of the things that come from outside are much
more powerful and complex. So, with our Western partners, we are doing our
best to combat the disinformation and misinformation campaigns that are at the
heart of hybrid warfare. We are also strengthening our cyber security.
- There have been a lot of attempts for hacking, like DDoS attacks, which create a high
frequency of bombardment, and they’ve made on a couple of occasions, the
website of our government was not functional, for example, for a couple of
hours once, and websites of different ministries were also attacked per time.
Expanded its presence in Serbia through cooperation with the Interior Ministry,
especially the BS security intelligence installation on the Center for cooperation
in civil protection at the Niche airport, cooperation between members of the
Secret Service of Serbia.
How is the security of Kosovo guaranteed by the International community?
Ukraine had some security guarantee, I mean the Budapest Memorandum,
but it didn’t work.
- Well, I have great confidence in NATO. I think our generation cannot come up
with a better security umbrella for our democracy and our progress than NATO.
So I really want to see NATO get stronger around the world, but especially in Europe, and these additional things that we need should be within that
framework.
And do you think it’s the future of Ukraine? And of course, the European
Union or not?
- Yes, both. I think if you want social welfare, it’s the EU. If you want security
and peace, it’s NATO. We have to be members of both organisations. I mean
Ukraine and Kosovo.
And about the future of Russia? Will it be a democratic country?
- The current situation is that the Russian Federation is not looking to the future,
it is looking to the past. They want to go back. They don’t want to go forward.
So this country is being led by a person who, on the one hand, has nostalgia for
the golden age of the Russian Empire and, on the other hand, is extremely bitter
towards the West and the fact that, with the progress of the world, Russia is far
from being number two in the 20th century.
- In the second half of the 20th century they enjoyed this aura of being behind us,
but now they are like going down in the old world rankings in terms of power
and strength.
- So I think this combination of nostalgia and bitterness is pretty hopeless,
but I always believe in people. I don’t think there are any people who are bad as
a collective, as a mass, but in every people and every country fascism can fall
like a plague. Our grandmothers and grandfathers fought against German and
Italian fascism, but now our generation is fighting against Russian fascism. So
there is no absolute immunity from fascism. You always have to be careful and
vigilant. And now, unfortunately, the people of Russia, with a small Internet,
have gone from one extreme to the other, from communism to fascism.
Author: Iryna Synelnyk
