Serbia's Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said on Dec. 26 that he had "ordered the full combat readiness” of the country's police and security troops on the border with Kosovo.
Gasic said in a statement that he acted on the orders of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic so that “all measures be taken to protect the Serbian people in Kosovo," AP reported.
The move comes amid increased tensions between the two states and claims that Kosovo is preparing an attack on ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo.
The government in Kosovo has not commented on the claims but has previously accused Serbian President Vucic of deliberately stirring tensions between the two countries.
A day before, NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo said they were investigating a shooting incident in northern Kosovo at a road barricade manned by local ethnic Serbs.
Earlier in August, tensions also flared when the government in Pristina, Kosovo said Serbs living in the north would have to use license plates issues in Pristina. Roadblocks were set up in protest, but were eventually removed with the oversight of NATO peacekeepers.
Serbia has never recognized Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority, as an independent state after it broke away from Serbia following a war in 1998-99. The United States and most European Union member states have recognized Kosovo's independence, which was officially declared in 2008.
Serbia, whose military is armed through Russian donations and purchases, has been threatening force against Kosovo since it became independent.
