NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called on the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo to refrain from unilateral actions that could lead to the further escalation of tensions in Kosovo.
Stoltenberg spoke on November 7 by phone with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti about the tense situation in the north of Kosovo and told them dialogue is the only way forward.
The NATO chief added on Twitter that NATO's KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo "remains vigilant."
Vucic said that he indicated in the call with Stoltenberg that "Pristina is brutally violating the Brussels agreement with its unilateral moves."
Kosovo is doing this by suspending the regional police chief in the north of Kosovo, by dealing "illegitimately" with the policy on phasing out Serbian license plates, and by refusing to establish a union of Serbian municipalities, he said on Instagram.
"Despite this, Serbia strives to maintain peace and stability and will remain committed to that," Vucic said.
The creation of a union of Serb-majority municipalities has become a stumbling block in the EU's efforts to push the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo forward.
The proposed union is one of the agreements reached by the two sides as part of the dialogue on the normalization of relations. The Kosovo authorities reject the implementation of the agreement because they believe that it would be harmful for Kosovo.
Tensions have been running high in Kosovo since Kurti announced last week that the government would go ahead with the implementation of the license-plate conversion starting on November 1, although he said the plan would be implemented gradually.
The dismissal last week of a the director of the police for the north, Nenad Djuric, prompted ethnic Serb lawmakers, judges, and police officers in Kosovo on November 5 to resign en masse from their posts.
Djuric was suspended after the Police Inspectorate of Kosovo announced on November 3 that he was suspected of criminal offenses related to his refusal to implement the government's policy, which aims to replace vehicle license plates issued by Serbian authorities when Kosovo was still part of Serbia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on November 7 that it viewed the situation in Kosovo with alarm and accused the West of "pushing the situation toward a direct conflict."
The ministry said in a statement that Belgrade showed a "constructive approach" to the latest crisis and attacked "extremists" in Pristina for what it said was a series of provocations that exacerbated long-standing ethnic tensions.
Serbia has refused calls from the European Union to join sanctions against Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.