Kosovo Force Regional Command-East soldiers stationed at Camp Nothing Hill watch protests in Leposavici, Kosovo, that began on May 26, 2023. (Anna Pongo/U.S. Army)

STUTTGART, Germany — A contingent of reinforcements have taken up positions in Kosovo, where NATO is bolstering its peacekeeping mission as tensions have ratcheted up in the country. 

Britain on Friday sent the first of 200 soldiers to Kosovo, a deployment that was made at the request of U.S. Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s supreme allied commander. 

“These deployments are a prudent step to ensure KFOR has the forces it needs to fulfil its UN mandate to maintain a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all people in Kosovo,” NATO said in a statement Friday. 

The soldiers from Britain’s’ 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment join a 400-strong United Kingdom force already in Kosovo.  Last week, Romania also announced it was sending about 100 extra troops to bolster NATO’s Kosovo Force, known as KFOR. 

The deployments are a response to a late September shootout between Kosovo police and armed Serbs who barricaded themselves in a Serbian monastery. Three of the attackers and one Kosovo policeman were killed in the incident, which sparked concerns of a potential wider escalation between Kosovo and Serbia. 

Kosovo, home to a mostly Muslim population of ethnic Albanians, gained independence from Serbia in 2008. However, Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state and has complained about the status of ethnic Serbs who still reside there. 

NATO has been leading a peacekeeping operation in Kosovo since 1999. The current KFOR contingent involves more than 4,500 troops from 27 countries, including the United States.