Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 19/06/2023
Tensions have been ongoing in municipalities in northern Kosovo, predominantly inhabited by Serbs, in recent days, as the local Serbian population protests against the newly elected mayors in those municipalities. The protests have escalated in recent days, prompting the international community to involve in order to stabilize the situation in Kosovo.
The media have been reporting daily on the developments, and numerous pieces of information have flooded social media, including the claim that Russia expressed its intention to help Serbia by sending tanks. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
“Maria Zakharova: ‘Russia is ready to send tanks to Kosovo and resolve the situation in three days, but the state of Serbia must request it,‘” reads a post being shared on Facebook, which previously appeared on Twitter.
By searching through press releases published on the official website of the Ministry, as well as other sources where this statement should have been published, given its importance, we have come to a conclusion that the statement is fabricated.
Search results for keywords in the native, English, and Russian languages also do not confirm that Zakharova expressed Russia’s intention to send tanks to Kosovo if Serbia requests it, as stated in the disputed quote.
The latest official statement from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson was published on May 16, when Zakharova openly expressed a negative attitude towards the European Union and the United States and stated that they have no intention of contributing to the stabilization of the situation in Kosovo.
A couple of weeks before that, in a press release posted on the Ministry’s website, Zakharova stated that the solution would be fulfilling the obligations outlined in the Brussels Agreement previously signed by the official authorities of Pristina and Belgrade.
At that time, she stated that “decisive steps for de-escalation” were necessary, as well as “the formation of the Association of Serbian Municipalities in the province in its original form, as provided for by written agreements between Belgrade and Pristina with guarantees from Brussels ten years ago.”
She added that this is a key condition for dialogue, which, as she said, is the only chance to ensure regional stability and security.
Therefore, Zakharova did recently comment on the situation in Kosovo, but there is no evidence that she said, “Russia is ready to send tanks to Kosovo,” as attributed to her in this disputed post.
Based on the evidence presented, we rate the Facebook post as fake news.
The “Fake news” rating is given to an original media report (completely produced by the media that published it) that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and disseminated with the intent to misinform the public, that is, to present a completely false claim as fact.