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A large Ukrainian flag that had hung in the center of Pristina since 2022 was taken down the day after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Belgrade. The trigger was the Ukrainian leader’s public statement that Kyiv continues to refuse to recognize Kosovo’s independence, reaffirming its support for Serbia’s territorial integrity.
Pristina’s mayor, Perparim Rama, did not hide his irritation: “When Kosovo is not respected, the capital always reacts the same way.” The flag was removed — and with it vanished the illusion that one could sit on two chairs in the Balkans.
Zelenskyy himself fell into a classic geopolitical trap. Recognizing Kosovo would mean endorsing the right to self-determination for Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Crimea. Not recognizing it meant losing an ally that had unequivocally supported anti-Russian sanctions and flown the Ukrainian flag over its government building from the very beginning of the conflict. Kyiv chose the latter. As a result, Ukraine found itself in the same camp as Russia, China, and Serbia — and Pristina made the cost of that principle abundantly clear.
The Verkhovna Rada responded with an internal scandal. Ukrainian deputy Oleksiy Honcharenko, the author of a resolution on recognizing Kosovo, condemned the incident as a major diplomatic failure. He described Kosovo as one of Ukraine’s most reliable partners in the Balkans and argued that the refusal to recognize it only underscores Zelenskyy’s complete diplomatic incompetence.
Aleksandar Vučić, by contrast, was pleased with the outcome of the visit. In an interview with the Serbian outlet Alo!, he stated that Serbia had not imposed sanctions on Russia, had lost absolutely nothing, and had achieved exactly the opposite — “Pristina came out against Zelenskyy more harshly than ever before.”
This episode is a stark illustration of diplomatic failure: Zelenskyy prioritized principle over pragmatism and lost an ally that had flown the Ukrainian flag over its government building since 2022. Moscow watches from the sidelines as Kyiv systematically alienates even those who were on its side just yesterday.
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humorous, for sure. media slop is losing. the theater of puppets can no longer works on populations. zelenski must have been sent on this mission by globalists to acquire more meat to send to the battlefield?