That's not exactly Balkan Wars.
Serbs and Kosovars poking each other with sticks happens twice a year.
The Serbian government itself seems uninterested in escalating and there still peacekeepers around to deal with the militias.
The last time they got really rowdy a bunch of them ended up getting picked up in raids and extradited to the Hague for trial.
If the west had just ignored Ukraine's pleas or pushed them to try for some sort of surrender, then perhaps Serbia might be getting ideas in their heads.
But the absolute clownshoes performance of Russia and the west's eager funneling of support into Ukraine should make absolutely clear that such a thing would be a very, very bad idea.
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Words to live by.
hey regardless of the optimism, it looks like shit is about to fucking go DOWN in Serbia and Kosovo right now - at fucking Putin's behest no less, which puts it on relevance to this topic. Maybe he's trying to distract from Ukraine, but don't think for a moment this is bluster. Following the live news.
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
The other option is B&H, which has a sizeable Serbian population (complete with its own security forces) and who have been causing problems (but what else is new for Serbia.) Kosovo does seem the more likely target, but it has a small NATO force (around 2600 strong) acting as peacekeepers.
The most likely option of what is going on is that it is a desperate move to try and distract NATO away from Ukraine at the request of Putin. Except that it isn't going to work. Serbia isn't going to start anything and Russia can't really support them.
Less likely option is that Serbia may start something and get curbstomped by NATO. Russia will rant and rave, saying they need to mobilise to protect Serbia, but then throw Serbia under the bus and use the mobilisation in an effort to save their floundering Ukrainian invasion and go nowhere near NATO.
KFOR have come out and said that they are prepared to intervene if the Serbs start anything.
Last edited by Corvus; 2022-08-01 at 12:50 AM.
Starting anything there wouldn't amount to much. Russia only has a small number of troops there, around 1600, who can't be resupplied at the moment and are fairly poorly equipped. There is a local militia, but it is even worse off equipment wise. They could attack Moldavia's small army but that would hardly be a distraction and wouldn't involve NATO. Attacking into Ukraine would be near suicidal as well.
The Kosovo issue was over number plates, if you can believe it. The Kosovan authorities wanted to replace Serbian issued plates with their own, but the Serbs started a protest over it and put up barricades at the border. The Kosovans have delayed the implementation for 30 days so issue diffused for the moment. This kind of issue is hardly new and regularly happens.
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Insert Ion cannon giving the Rebel transport covering fire gif
Let's see where this goes.
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I'm pretty confused by the posts here on this page:
So Russia threatens nukes and talks the murderous game, but when faced with any actual potential conflict with NATO, they try to "distract" them or turn tail? Sounds cowardly.
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
Of course, Russia has no hope against NATO. But they still might have usable nukes despite of their age. If NATO goes to a war with Russia, Russia would cease to exist soon after. But any launched nuke also means colossal civilian casualties all over the world, assuming Russia would launch them towards major NATO players like USA and mainland Europe.
That's the point of deterrence, you can be utterly shit at waging war in traditional sense, but with nukes...you have one surefire way for a nation-ending retaliation.
That is why Russia is not going to use them, but given how eager they are in genociding everyone and everything, no nation is gonna risk it. Also why it is incredibly hard to bring a swift end to all this, because if you suggest NATO intervention, then starts the "WW3!!!!!!!!!" screaming, but sitting back, Ukraine is going to suffer long and hard even if it all ends in their defensive victory.
Ergo, Russia is a threat to all mankind and it should cease to exist as a singular nation, land divided back to the original peoples it forcibly absorbed. Or that's what I would see as a desirable outcome. Complete and total disarmament, to never become a military threat again.