Kosovo, Serbia engage in war of words after canal blast

BELGRADE – Kosovo and Serbia continued to sling allegations at each other on Sunday, just days after an explosion targeting a strategic canal in Kosovo sent tensions soaring between the long-time rivals. 
During a press conference, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Serbia of “copying Russian methods to threaten Kosovo and our region in general” after the explosion on Friday on the waterway near Zubin Potok, an area of Kosovo’s volatile north dominated by ethnic Serbs.
“Despite this, the effort is also destined to fail, as Kosovo is based on Western democratic values,” added Kurti.  
The blast damaged a canal supplying water to hundreds of thousands of people and cooling systems at two coal-fired power plants that generate most of Kosovo’s electricity.
Kurti’s comments came just hours after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic slammed the stream of accusations from Pristina during a live address to the country. 
Vucic said the explosion and Kosovo’s accusations were “an attempt at a large and ferocious hybrid attack” on Serbia. 
Belgrade’s Kosovo office said the strike gave the Pristina government an excuse to crack down on ethnic Serbs in Kosovo. 
“We have no connection with it,” Vucic said of the attack. 
He stopped short of directly accusing any individual or state of orchestrating the blast and said Serbian authorities had opened their own investigation.