{"id":456535,"date":"2026-06-12T13:27:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/12\/la-nato-ridimensiona-la-sua-presenza-in-kosovo-situazione-della-sicurezza-migliorata\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:02:02","slug":"nato-scales-back-its-presence-in-kosovo-security-situation-has-improved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/12\/nato-scales-back-its-presence-in-kosovo-security-situation-has-improved\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO scales back its presence in Kosovo: “Security situation has improved”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – NATO announced today (12 June) that it will gradually reduce its presence in the Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission in Kosovo over the coming year<\/strong>. The decision, according to the Atlantic Alliance\u2019s statement,<\/a> follows an assessment that \u201cthe security situation in Kosovo  has continued to improve over the last years<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cis now stable.<\/strong>\u201d Therefore, \u201cNATO will optimise KFOR\u2019s posture and gradually adjust its current force levels over the coming year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reduction will be neither immediate nor drastic<\/strong>. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation stresses that it will retain its ability to intervene rapidly and that the process may be halted or reversed<\/strong> should the situation on the ground deteriorate.<\/p>\n

The KFOR<\/a> is the NATO-led military force that has been present in the small Balkan country since 1999, following the war between Serbian forces and the Kosovar-Albanian population<\/strong> and the Alliance\u2019s subsequent military intervention. The mission operates under UN Security Council Resolution 1244<\/a> and is tasked with ensuring a safe environment and freedom of movement for all communities within the territory.<\/p>\n

KFOR currently comprises 4,600 personnel from 31 different countries<\/strong>. Italy is one of the main contributors<\/strong>: not only does it have around 800 troops deployed<\/strong> \u2013 a figure even higher than the 700 troops sent by the United States \u2013  but it also commands the entire mission, with the Italian Army Major General Enrico Barduani<\/strong> at the helm.<\/p>\n

As today\u2019s statement explains, since its inception, \u201cKFOR\u2019s posture has continuously adjusted so that the mission remains fit for purpose and responds to the evolving security situation.\u201d The last major reinforcement dates back to 2023<\/a>, when tensions between Kosovo\u2019s Albanian majority and the Serbian minority<\/strong> in the northern town of Zve\u010dan led to clashes and incidents that also involved NATO troops<\/strong>. On that occasion, it was decided to deploy nearly 1,000 additional troops<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Today, however, it was decided to make a cut, but from the Belgian city of Mons \u2013 headquarters of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) \u2013 statements are emerging aimed at preventing the announcement from being interpreted as the start of a gradual withdrawal. The Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Alexus G. Grynkewich<\/strong>, wished to emphasise that \u201cNATO will not allow a security vacuum to emerge”<\/strong> in Kosovo, reiterating more generally the Alliance\u2019s \u201cstrong commitment\u201d to the Western Balkans.<\/p>\n

“It is this commitment that has led to increased stability as the security organisations in Kosovo have become more capable,” Grynkewich said. This development has led to the current situation, which \u201cprovides an opportunity to optimise KFOR\u2019s size and posture further (already in January of this year, the deployment of reserve forces in support of the mission had been suspended, ed.),\u201d the General concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The withdrawal \u2013 which will take place “gradually” \u2013 may be halted or reversed should the situation on the ground deteriorate. Active since 1999, the KFOR mission currently comprises 4,600 personnel, 800 of whom are Italian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":456499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30809],"tags":[27336,26000,34431,31726,31521,25745],"class_list":["post-456535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-security","tag-balcani-en","tag-kfor","tag-kosovo-en","tag-nato-en-10","tag-safety-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456536,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456535\/revisions\/456536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}