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The leading Balkan news channel in English on Telegram.
—❗️🇭🇷/🇽🇰/🇦🇱❌🇷🇸 URGENT: Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has claimed that Serbia is “preparing for an attack by Croatia, Kosovo and Albania,” alleging that the three neighbors are “waiting for a favorable moment when general chaos reigns in the world” to strike and that Croatia has “done everything in the past year to bring down Serbia.”
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇷🇺❌🇪🇺🇽🇰 NEW: Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zaharova stated that, under Serbia’s constitution and UN Security Council Resolution 1244, Kosovo and Metohija remain an “inseparable part” of Serbia with wide autonomy, adding that the EU has “for years been blackmailing Serbs” while giving “free rein” to the authorities in Priština.
➡️ She commented after Serbia’s Foreign Ministry denied claims from parts of the domestic public that Belgrade had asked Moscow not to engage on the Kosovo question in the UN Security Council.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇮🇷/🇷🇴/🇧🇬/🇬🇷 NEW: Iran’s Khorramshahr and Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, with ranges of up to around 2,000 km, can reach southeastern Europe, putting Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece within potential striking distance.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇷🇸❌🇽🇰 NEW: Serbia's oldest cultural-scientific body, Matica Srpska, called on authorities to raise the issue internationally to keep the University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica—serving 7,000 students and 1,000 staff—within Serbia's education system.
➡️ The group warns Kosovo's Law on Foreigners, set for March 15 enforcement, risks "unpredictable consequences" like a Serb exodus, violating UNSC Resolution 1244.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—❗️🇷🇴/🇺🇸/🇮🇷 BREAKING: Romanian President Nicușor Dan has convened the Supreme Council of National Defence to decide whether to grant US aircraft access to Romanian military bases, including Mihail Kogălniceanu, in support of operations linked to Iran, according to political sources cited by Reuters.
➡️ The meeting, the first CSAT session of 2026, will also review the broader security fallout from the Middle East conflict and the temporary deployment of additional US military capabilities on Romanian territory.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇺🇸/🇹🇷 NEW: A NATO-assigned US Patriot air and missile defense system has been deployed to Malatya in eastern Türkiye, where it is being readied for operational use to reinforce protection of Turkish airspace amid heightened regional tensions linked to the Iran war.
➡️ The system is positioned near the Kurecik NATO radar base, which recently helped track Iranian ballistic missiles heading toward Turkish territory.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇮🇷/🇧🇬 UPDATE: Bulgaria has received assurances from Iran that it faces no danger and is not considered a target, caretaker FM Nadezhda Neynsky said in an interview for bTV’s “Face to Face” on Monday, stressing that Sofia is not a party to the conflict and sees no direct threat to Bulgarian territory.
➡️ She added that Bulgaria relies on NATO air and missile defence in case of escalation, while domestic air and anti-drone systems remain on alert.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—💸🇷🇴 NEW: Romanian President Nicușor Dan said Romania could meet the criteria to join the euro area within the next 3-4 years, arguing that adopting the single currency would be beneficial for the country through deeper economic integration and better-paid jobs.
➡️ He stressed that Bucharest still needs to bring its budget deficit and public debt within required thresholds, while PM Ilie Bolojan has set a target of cutting the deficit to around 6.2–6.3% this year and to 3% by 2030.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🪖🇷🇸 NEW: Serbia has sharply increased its arms purchases over the past 5 years, with imports rising by about 195%, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
➡️ The country now ranks 37th worldwide, with its share of global arms imports growing from 0.2% in 2016–2020 to 0.6% in 2021–2025, placing it among the top 40 importers.
🔗 Dunav Intel
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🪖🇭🇷 NEW: Croatia has formally reintroduced compulsory military service after nearly two decades, with the first 800 conscripts beginning a two‑month basic training program today at barracks in Knin, Slunj and Požega.
➡️ The draft, revived following legislative changes in late 2025, will see up to 4,000 young men called up annually for short-term training as Zagreb cites heightened security risks in Europe and the Western Balkans.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇺🇸/🇹🇷 NEW: The United States has ordered non-emergency staff and family members to leave the US Consulate General in Adana due to heightened security risks linked to the regional fallout from the US–Iran confrontation, while strongly urging American citizens to depart southeast Türkiye.
➡️ The consulate has suspended services, with US nationals instructed to seek assistance from the embassy in Ankara or the consulate in Istanbul.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—❗️🇺🇸🇮🇱❌🇮🇷 BREAKING: Khamenei's son and new Supreme Leader of Iran has been wounded in a US-Israeli airstrike.
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—☦️✝️ WATCH: Air-raid sirens sounded inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Christianity’s holiest site.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇹🇷/🇬🇷 NEW: A Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 UAV conducted surveillance near the Greek border opposite Didymoteicho and Orestiada in the Evros region, performing circular reconnaissance patterns around 18,000 ft one day after Greece announced the deployment of Patriot systems and F-16s to support Bulgaria’s air defence.
➡️ The UAV likely operated from the Turkish drone base in Keşan, a key hub for monitoring the Greek-Turkish border.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇷🇸/🇺🇸 NEW: Chief of the General Staff Gen. Milan Mojsilović met in Belgrade with Adm. George M. Wikoff, commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command Naples, for talks on the regional security situation and further military cooperation, with a particular focus on Kosovo and Metohija and coordination with KFOR to prevent escalation on the ground.
➡️ The visit, Wikoff’s first to Serbia since taking over JFC Naples, also included a tour of the Borovac training ground and South Base, facilities developed with U.S. support and used to prepare Serbian units for international missions.
🔗 Dunav Intel
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
🇷🇸 🧭⚡️— Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić says Serbia will not join NATO and intends to maintain its neutrality.
🇪🇺 Legion Europa | Group Chat 🇪🇺
—🇭🇷/🇪🇺 NEW: Croatian President Zoran Milanović said Europe is “a pack of house cats, each going its own way — not wolves,” attacking the EU’s security posture and cohesion.
➡️ He added that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “just smiled” as US President Donald Trump criticized Spain, underscoring divisions inside Europe over defense and transatlantic ties.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—❗️🇷🇴🤝🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 URGENT: Romania has approved a US request for temporary access to the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, Europe’s largest NATO installation, to support operations in the Middle East, including aerial refueling, fighter jet deployments and the stationing of up to 500 additional personnel.
➡️ Bucharest stresses the deployment is defensive and tied to monitoring and support missions rather than basing offensive strike assets on Romanian soil.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—✈️ 🇭🇷 NEW: The Croatian government repatriated 870 of its citizens free of charge from crisis-hit areas in the Middle East, covering the full expense of €856,000.
➡️ Operations also brought back 101 foreign nationals from countries including Germany, Serbia, France, and Slovenia.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇷🇴 Romania’s Neptun Deep to reshape EU gas landscape
➡️ Romania’s Neptun Deep offshore project in the Black Sea is estimated to hold around 100 billion cubic meters of recoverable natural gas, with first gas expected in 2027 and plateau output of about 8 bcm per year, enough to turn Romania into the EU’s largest gas producer and a net exporter for the first time.
➡️ Developed by OMV Petrom and Romgaz with a total investment of up to EUR 4 billion, the field lies some 160 km offshore and will supply low‑emission gas via ten production wells, three subsea systems, an unmanned platform and a new pipeline to Tuzla.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇭🇷❌🇭🇺 NEW: A US federal judge in Washington DC enforced a $236 million arbitral award against Croatia on March 6 in a dispute with Hungarian energy firm MOL over its stake in Croatian oil company INA.
➡️ The ruling stems from Croatia's failure to honor 2009 gas business obligations, including market liberalization and taking over loss-making operations.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇷🇸/🇦🇱/🇪🇺 NEW: Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said he and Albania’s PM support a “multi-speed Europe,” adding that Serbia would be “very happy” to join the EU politically and economically even without voting rights, veto powers, or its own commissioner.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🏛 🇬🇷 Today in 432 BC, the Parthenon in Athens was consecrated and dedicated to Athena!
🔗 Today in History
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇮🇷/🇦🇱 NEW: An Iranian missile strike on Albania is assessed as theoretically possible but practically almost impossible due to layered NATO air and missile defenses over Türkiye and Greece, which would sit along the likely flight path.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇪🇺 EU no longer trusts rules-based order, von der Leyen warns
➡️ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU ambassadors in Brussels that the Union can no longer fully rely on a post–Second World War “rules-based” international order, arguing that repeated geopolitical crises have deeply eroded the system and its multilateral mechanisms.
➡️ She called for a more “realistic” foreign policy focused on EU strategic interests, greater strategic autonomy, stronger defence capabilities and a review of current consensus-based decision making in external action.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇹🇷/🇮🇷 NEW: Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Iran’s ambassador in Ankara after a second ballistic missile launched from Iran was intercepted by NATO air defenses as it entered Turkish airspace near Gaziantep, with debris falling in uninhabited areas and no casualties reported.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇸🇮/🇪🇺 NEW: Slovenian PM Robert Golob told Politico that his right-wing election rival Janez Janša is the closest ally Viktor Orbán will ever have and warned that if Janša wins, he will side with Orbán in efforts to “break up the European Union,” calling this the real battle Slovenia and Europe now face.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
🇹🇷🇪🇺❌🇮🇷 — The Turkish Defense Ministry says a ballistic missile launched from Iran entered Turkish airspace and was intercepted by NATO air defense systems.
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—❗️🛢❌🇷🇸 BREAKING: The Serbian government has introduced a 10-day ban on the export of crude oil, diesel, gasoline and other petroleum products used as engine fuel, in a move aimed at shielding the domestic market from shortages and sharp price spikes amid global supply disruptions.
➡️ The measure applies to all modes of transport until March 19, after which Belgrade will decide whether to extend, modify or lift the restriction.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇨🇭 Switzerland votes to permanently protect cash
➡️ Switzerland has approved in a national referendum a constitutional guarantee to preserve cash as a permanent means of payment, with 73% of voters backing an initiative that prevents physical money from being replaced by purely virtual currency.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English