Kosovo: How the 1st Battalion of the Royal Yorkshire Regiment helps keep the peace in Balkan nation with NATO force

That seemed unthinkable, not so long ago. Ravaged by war and a humanitarian crisis in the late 1990s, Kosovo - a country not even the size of Yorkshire - remains one of those places whose very name, unfortunately, can be seen as shorthand for a painful, bloody, bitter period of recent world history.

“Kosovo has a reputation but we’re standing here now, about 1,000 metres high. It is unbelievably beautiful,” says Cpt Butters, a British Army intelligence officer with the 1st Battalion of The Royal Yorkshire Regiment (1 R YORKS), which is based at Catterick Garrison.

“And just knowing that, actually, this place was once at war and because we (NATO) are here it has now entered a relative peace is pretty good. We won’t take any credit because we’re only here for six weeks but that work has been done by our forebears through KFOR missions.”

That is the Kosovo Force, NATO’s peacekeeping operation set up in 1999 in the wake of its 78-day air bombing campaign against the regime of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Serbia and, from 1997 until 2000, what was the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

For 25 years, KFOR has been a constant presence in the region, which is still split along ethnic lines with Albanian (more than 90 per cent) and Serbian Kosovans, the latter typically residing in the north.

In September and October last year, 1 R YORKS led as the British Army’s Strategic Reserve Force (SRF) for NATO, with more than 500 troops out there as a battle group aiming to maintain stability and ensure freedom of movement in the area.

For, every so often, that stability does falter. In September 2023, one of the most severe escalations of recent years occurred when Serb militants attacked the Kosovo Police, killing one officer in the northern village of Banjska before taking refuge in a monastery. After the building was recaptured, three militants were reported dead. As it happened, soldiers from Yorkshire were in the province when the SRF in Kosovo - which last year was the 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment - was activated for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century.

Lieutenant Colonel Ed Lyons, commanding officer for 1 R YORKS, says: “We are the primary reserve and only non-dedicated reserve that NATO has to respond to violence or increase in tension in the country - all the other reserve forces are currently actually committed in Kosovo - and we have been, since the Banjska Monastery attacks last September (2023), where this force that we are now assuming the role of was also activated and deployed.

“So it’s really important that we’ve come and tested our own ability from the UK to deploy, to be activated and be received by NATO, to go on and then subsequently be able to deliver operational effect.”

Proving that, within 14 days, the battalion can be in Kosovo and ready for action is a major part of the trip in itself. In three days, 1 R YORKS needed to get all their kit packed, drive down to Marchwood Military Port in Southampton, then load up a ferry which sailed to Durres in Albania. Troops then flew to Albania to pick up their vehicles and drove them through North Macedonia to Kosovo’s Camp Bondsteel, the military command and supply hub for mainly US and other coalition forces of NATO - one of Europe’s largest - near the capital of Pristina.

“It’s what we as an expeditionary army should be doing,” says Cpt Butters, who spent time at school in Serbia and whose father is from Garforth in Leeds. “Being able to get a phone call one day and 14 days, literally two weeks later, be operating in a different part of the world making our presence felt.”

In 1989, Serbia imposed direct rule on Kosovo, a predominantly Albanian province, leading to waves of violence between the two populations.

A decade later President Milošević’s policy of ethnic cleansing - he died of a heart attack in his prison cell aged 64 in 2006 while his trail was under way in the Hague after being indicted for genocide and other war crimes - caused not only mass deaths but a large number of refugees and internally displaced Albanian Kosovans. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought the Yugoslav forces, was also accused of atrocities and among its high-ranking members was the man who later became President, Hashim Thaçi. He resigned in 2020 after himself being indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict two decades earlier, to which he has pleaded not guilty. That trial continues.

After diplomacy failed, NATO’s air campaign, Operation Allied Force, lasted from March 24 to June 10, 1999, and Yugoslavia surrendered. In NATO’s words, it accepted the withdrawal of its military, police and paramilitary forces and the deployment of an international civil and security presence. General Mike Jackson, who died last year aged 80, was in command of KFOR in 1999 and, today, the force consists of more than 4,000 troops from 29 countries.

In 2008, Kosovo declared independence and is recognised by nations such as the UK and USA, but is not by Serbia or its allies China and Russia.

Despite its precarious peace, tensions remain in the province. Violence has broken out sporadically over the years and, in late 2022, ethnic Serb lawmakers, judges and police officers in the region resigned en masse in protest over the dismissal of a police officer who refused to follow an order that all vehicle licence plates used there must be issued by the Kosovar government.

The furore over these seemingly bureaucratic measures hint at the enduring cultural hostilities between ethnic Serb and Albians in the region, differences which are plain to see while travelling the length of Kosovo.

The Yorkshire Post joined the 1 RYORK’s Burma and Quebec companies on patrol along what’s called the administrative boundary line (ABL) close to Serbia - they do not refer to it as a border, as those in the north and beyond still see Kosovo as rightfully part of their homeland.

Often for hours, soldiers drove civilian SUVs (the military Foxhounds ferried over are deemed to appear too bellicose for KFOR’s purposes) towards the ABL, passing the capital of Pristina and the memorial to the KLA. The road leading up to that memorial is named after Sir Tony Blair - or ‘Tonibler’, which became a name for native sons born after the NATO intervention so championed by the former UK Prime Minister.

Once the vehicles go north through Mitrovica, though, the region’s many mosques make way for Orthodox churches and the republic’s colours are replaced by those of Serbian flags - though it is still Kosovo. High in the hills, south of Mitrovicia but facing north towards the ethnic Serb population, is a huge, illuminated red sign reading UÇK - the Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës, or Kosovo Liberation Army. Its position cannot be a coincidence.

During their time in Kosovo, as well as keeping the peace - patrolling with both Kosovo and Serbian authorities - much of the Yorkshire soldiers’ work is actually helping the police to deal with smugglers suspected of transporting contraband, potentially weapons, cigarettes or alcohol.

Gangs vie for power and the black market poses problems, but it can be difficult upholding the rule of law when officials themselves are at odds. As Cpt Butter puts it, referencing the mass resignations, “Albanians and Serbs don’t necessarily get on. They can’t even speak the same language - one is a Latin language, one is a Cyrillic language”.

But as third responders KFOR cannot arrest people or search homes, for example, so pass any intelligence discovered on patrol to the Kosovo Police.

During the YP’s patrol with Burma company, armed soldiers kept an eye on log cabins in the woods previously identified as locations used in smuggling. While there, a man pulled up in a car and got out, but didn’t speak English. Remarkable timing, thought the recruits.

Sergeant Daniel Emmett, in his early 30s, from Todmorden, says: “At the end of the day we’re not tactical out here, we’re not there to be covert, so we do make sure they know that our presence is in the area, so if they do want to carry on with the smuggling they know that we’re going to end up catching them.”

Citizens of the province also like to see them, he says, and will give them waves as they drive past.

But what do the troops themselves think of serving in this lesser-trodden part of Europe?

Corporal Alex Barfoot, in his early 20s, from Tadcaster, was a personal trainer in York until Covid-19 happened and he “got very bored” before going to basic training for the Army in 2021. Since then, he’s experienced trips to Kenya, Oman, and UK exercises and is in Kosovo for the second time.

This job gives him “a sense of purpose,” he says, and describes the Army as “a new family”.

“I enjoy everything that’s physical and this is about as physical as it gets, so it’s good for me.

“I’ve been (in the Army nearly) four years now and been promoted twice already. I’d like to get as high as I can before my body piles in, which is effectively the route that every soldier should want to take.”

It was a similar motivation for Private Billy Broadhurst, from York, who was on his first tour aged 18 - for which he stood to get a medal just months out of training.

“I signed up when I was 15 then joined when I was 16,” he says.

“I just didn’t want to do a job where I’m sitting down, I wanted to do something where I’m active.”

The next day, Quebec company heads out on reconnaissance to find suitable observation posts - spots where soldiers will wait for long periods watching for criminal activity.

A dirt track and a couple of agricultural vehicles are all that marks the spot of the ABL - which is the farthest personnel can tread without potentially breaching Serbian soil.

The comfort levels of these 24 or 48-hour observation posts, says Captain Matt Smart, are not only weather-dependent but “bear sighting-dependent”. Although rare, there are some wild bears in the area, so they need to stay vigilant not just against criminals, but cubs.

Many of the young soldiers on patrol, too, would not even have been born when the war was happening.

And although there is no outright conflict in Kosovo now, these are frontline soldiers and trained to fight enemies - something they will not hesitate to do when asked.

Patrol commander Corporal Brandon Carroll - who, now in his late 20s, would have been a toddler when NATO bombs hit Yugoslav targets - says he and his comrades have spent many hours of their lives “training to fight in the worst case scenario, peer-on-peer”.

Twenty five years after the war, no such force is necessary in Kosovo today.

But how long can NATO stay, decades on from the intervention?

Speaking at Camp Bondsteel in October, Lt Col Lyons says: “As we look back over the last 25 years, there have been repeated tensions and flashpoints - in 2004, 2010-11 and then last year as well - where tensions have risen. Currently, within the broader region are our adversaries, there is constant instability within the region, which we all know. We have the elections in February (tomorrow), and again, it’s a point of significant tension.

“The conditions that NATO has set for their withdrawal and handing over security are really clearly defined. I think until that point, we’ve got to just continue working with both the Serbian armed forces and the Kosovan armed forces to provide a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all ethnicities.”

Back on the mountainside, meanwhile, Cpt Butters allows for a little optimism.

“We are here for six weeks but hopefully the impact that we can have here can last for as long as six decades and when I’m an old man, Kosovo may be a holiday destination, it may be part of the European Union. I’ve spent time in Serbia - Serbia is a wonderful country - and like all things there are frictions and difficulties. Even down to a group of friends, you’re not going to get on all the time. I just hope that in a few decades this place will be able to thrive, Kosovans and Serbs will be able to call each other Europeans, and we can all - not forget - but learn from the past.”