UK forces are deploying to NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo following a request from NATO amid increasing tensions in the region, in particular following a violent attack on Kosovo police personnel in northern Kosovo on 24 September 2023.
Following a request from Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and approval by the North Atlantic Council, the UK Ministry of Defence announced on 1 October 2023 that it is deploying around 200 soldiers from 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment to join the 400-strong British contingent already in country as part of an annual exercise. The British Army unit has been assigned to the NATO commander of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) following a specific request from SACEUR, US General Chris Cavoli.
KFOR troops are provided by 28 countries, with the UK currently contributing two intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) units and staff officers to the mission headquarters, while a battalion-sized Strategic Reserve Force (SRF) has been held at 14 days’ notice to move in the UK.
The UK commitment to KFOR was extended in May 2023 when Minister for Armed Forces James Heappey announced the UK would continue to contribute to the NATO mission until at least 2026.
NATO’s peace-support operation in Kosovo has been running since June 1999, when KFOR was established following NATO’s 78-day air campaign against the regime of Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević, who ultimately became the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes.
The latest tensions in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 but is not recognised by Belgrade, came to a head with a gun battle at a monastery on 24 September between Kosovo police and at least 30 heavily armed Kosovo Serbs. A police officer and three of the gunmen were killed during the fighting.
Tensions between Kosovo Serbs and the country’s ethnic Albanian majority had been running especially high since local elections in April 2023 that were boycotted by most Serbs. Clashes in the aftermath of the election forced NATO to send an extra 700 troops to Kosovo at the end of May.
