Russia demands release of UN staff in Kosovo

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK, has deplored the detention of two of its staff during an armed police operation in Kosovo’s Serb-populated north.

The mission said in a statement Tuesday the two U.N. staff members were injured the operation, which triggered Serb anger and sent regional tensions soaring.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said that one of the U.N. employees is Russian and condemned Kosovo for stoking tensions with neighboring Serbia. The nationality of the other employee is not immediately known.

UNMIK Ambassador Zahir Tanin called for their immediate release, adding “any harm to United Nations staff will be met with the highest degree of diplomatic and international legal responses.”

UNMIK was deployed in Kosovo in 1999 after NATO intervened to stop a bloody Serb crackdown on Kosovo Albanian separatists. It has a reduced mission after Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.