Ivan Milojevic, a Serbian worker at the post office in Gracanica, a municipality close to capital Pristina and mostly populated by ethnic Serbs, said that the closure was part of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti's pressure on Serbs ahead of the Feb. 9 parliamentary election.

Other facilities in Serb-majority areas of northern Kosovo were shut down throughout last year. The decision prompted a furious response from Serbia’s government and risked compounding tensions that have escalated since a cross-border shootout in the country’s north in 2023 killed a Kosovo police officer.

By Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje Kosovo’s Minister of Interior Xhelal Svecla announced on January 15 the closure of Serbian municipal offices and parallel institutions operating within the country,