Kosovo Internal Affairs Minister Xhelal Svecla confirmed on Thursday that the police started patrolling around the northern Gazivode lake.

According to the minister, a water patrol police unit was formed for the first time. “The Kosovo Police today began regular patrols of the border line between Kosovo and Serbia, as well as the entire area of Lake Ujman (Gazivode). Now, control of the state border is more complete,” the minister wrote in a Facebook post.

Svecla visited the Zubin Potok area (where Gazivode is located) with Prime Minister Albin Kurti earlier this week, including a visit to a new Kosovo police base outside the mainly-Serb village of Donji Jasenovik.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic reacted saying that the authorities in Pristina are in full control of the Gazivode lake “in a new violation of the Brussels Agreement … under which the police in the north must be part of Directorate North which means the Serbs have to be in it”.

Serbian Office for Kosovo chief Petar Petkovic said that the “irresponsible war-mongering policy by Kurti’s clique is provoking the Serbs in the north of Kosovo while Belgrade is trying to maintain peace and stability in the region and doing everything to calm our people in the province… I want to remind Svecla that every attempt to usurp the lake and private property in the north to build illegal police bases will not help Pristina take over the north,” he said.