Explosion in Zubin Potok/ The water supply channel from Ujman lake is damaged

2024-11-30 08:29:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Kosovo Police said on Friday evening that an explosion in the municipality of Zubin Potok, in the north inhabited by a majority of Serbs, damaged a water supply channel from Lake Ujman in the area.

The regional water supply company "Mitrovica" announced that it has stopped the supply of drinking water due to damage to a part of the supply channel. The company that supplies drinking water to the two municipalities of Mitrovica, Vushtrri, Skenderaj and Zveçan, called on the citizens to "provide drinking water reserves".

The police said that they are conducting investigations, but for now there have been no arrests in connection with the attack, which passed without harm to people.

Explosion in Zubin Potok/ The water supply channel from Ujman lake is damaged

Kurti: Criminal and terrorist attack aimed at damaging critical infrastructure

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in a press conference around midnight that Friday's attack is a criminal and terrorist act, which aimed to damage the country's critical and most important infrastructure.

"The attack was carried out by professionals, it is the next criminal and terrorist attack that we believe comes from gangs directed and orchestrated by Serbia, which has both the interest, the willingness and the ability to cause such attacks and damage, in this particular case using a large amount of explosives in a key joint where repair is difficult," he said.

He said that the state institutions are engaged to ensure the management of the situation, the recovery of the damage and the complete disclosure of the case.

"If the damage is not repaired, then a part of Kosovo risks being left without electricity in the morning. "Several cities and a part of Pristina are at risk of being left without drinking water," said Prime Minister Kurti.

He announced the meeting of the Security Council of Kosovo after the created situation while thanking the United States and the European Union, which reacted by condemning the attack and offering support to the government of Kosovo.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani in her reaction said that Serbian criminal gangs will lose every battle with Kosovo's institutions in their cynical efforts to attack Kosovo's vital infrastructure through terrorist acts.

Explosion in Zubin Potok/ The water supply channel from Ujman lake is damaged

"The protection of constitutionality and legality in every corner of the country and the uncompromising fight against these criminal elements are vital. I invite the citizens to continue to show calmness and prudence while our institutions are dealing with the investigation of the case and the repair of the damage with the highest professionalism", she said.

The explosion was immediately condemned by Lista Serbe, the main political entity of the Kosovo Serbs, which said in a statement that this attack has endangered the water supply of citizens.

"We want to clearly emphasize that this act is absolutely contrary to the interests of the Serbian people and we ask KFOR and EULEX to investigate it immediately", says the reaction of this party.

Explosion in Zubin Potok/ The water supply channel from Ujman lake is damaged

The chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, said that the recent attacks in the north of the country show, according to him, the wrong policies of the government.

"Security institutions work closely with KFOR and the American presence! Naivety and ignorance of the essence of the problem on the part of political officials of the government is endangering the strategic infrastructure of Kosovo", he wrote.

Lake Ujman, which Serbs call Gazivode, was built in the 80s and a part of it lies in Serbia. It is important for supplying water to Kosovo's thermal power plants and, in the summer months, to several municipalities in the country, including the capital. The lake is one of the hot points of the talks between Kosovo and Serbia for the normalization of relations between them.

In June 2021, the United States delivered to the governments of Kosovo and Serbia the report of the US Department of Energy, on the management of the water of Lake Ujman, which was part of the commitments in the agreement between the two countries for the normalization of economic relations, signed on September 4, 2020 at the White House in the presence of the former US president, Donald Trump.

Friday's explosion in the channel supplying water from this lake happened a few hours after the Kosovo police announced that it has increased security measures throughout the country in order to, as stated in its announcement, "prevent incidents of various natures".

Police said there will be increased operations to provide more security throughout Kosovo, including its north, where two hand grenade attacks were reported in three days.

The authorities announced today that late Thursday, unknown persons threw a hand grenade into the building of the municipality of Zveçan in the north of Kosovo, leaving behind material damage, but without human consequences. Meanwhile, on Tuesday of this week, unknown persons threw two hand grenades in the courtyard of the police station in this municipality.

The police assessed the cases as "serious criminal attacks", while they were strongly condemned by the country's authorities.

"This is the third explosion in the last three days that has targeted the institutions of our country and it is intended to incite fear and insecurity first among the residents of the four municipalities north of Ibri to escalate the situation and then throughout our country. Such efforts will remain hopeless because the constitutionality in our country, the rule of law, the order and the people of our Republic will never be defeated by anyone", Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Friday./VOA