Tensions were high in northern Kosovo on Sunday, with Serbs blocking roads as shots and explosions rang out and the Serbian president warned that Serbian troops are ready to defend their “homeland” if peace doesn’t prevail, writes ABC NEWS.

The roads in Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, which proclaimed independence in 2008, were blocked with heavy vehicles and trucks a day after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he would ask the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo to permit the deployment of 1,000 Serb troops in the Serb-populated north of Kosovo, saying they are being harassed there.

The roadblocks, which Serbs say were erected to protest the recent arrest of a former Kosovo Serb police officer, came despite the postponement of the Deember 18 municipal election opposed by Kosovo Serbs.

“Kosovo reduced tensions by postponing local elections. Recent rhetoric from Serbia did the opposite. Suggesting sending Serbian forces to Kosovo is completely unacceptable. So are the latest attacks on EULEX”, - said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Vucic said after a meeting of Serbia’s top security body that he will do everything to preserve peace, but that the army is ready to protect the minority Serbs in Kosovo: “We have taken certain measures to protect our homeland. I have issued orders and the National Security Council has accepted them. I am very proud of our soldiers and policemen. Before they receive orders … we will try for a million times to preserve peace”.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Belgrade of trying to destabilize Kosovo. He said Serbia also is trying to bring an end to the EU-mediated dialogue on normalizing bilateral ties and take it to the United Nations Security Council, where Belgrade hopes to get support from Russia and China. Kurti called on Kosovo’s Serbs “to distance themselves from the criminal groups and Vucic’s regime that is funding them and looking for a war”.