The Kremlin says it is closely monitoring what it called a “potentially dangerous” situation in Kosovo, after ethnic Serb gunmen stormed a village at the weekend, battling police and barricading themselves into a monastery. 

Russia does not recognise Kosovo, which has a majority ethnic Albanian population, as an independent country and traditionally supports Serbia, with which it has close religious and cultural ties. 

“The situation is extremely difficult. On Kosovo, we see a traditionally biased attitude towards the Serbs… The situation is very, very tense and potentially dangerous, we are monitoring it very closely,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. 

Kosovo police units retook the monastery late on Sunday after three attackers and one police officer were killed. 

They were securing the village in northern Kosovo on Monday. Ethnic Albanians form the vast majority of the 1.8 million population of Kosovo, a former province of Serbia. 

But some 50,000 Serbs in the north have never accepted Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence and still see Belgrade as their capital.