The convoy of more than 20 Russian trucks was stopped Tuesday by U.S. soldiers guarding the Kosovo border with Serbia, increasing tensions in the volatile region. It remained stranded Wednesday.
Moscow has become the champion of Serb defiance against Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. Local Serbs are frustrated by Belgrade's refusal to use force to save them from ethnic Albanian rule, and have turned to the Kremlin for help.
The minority Serbs, who reject Kosovo's statehood, have been blocking roads in the Serb-run north of the country to prevent Pristina authorities from taking control. The peacekeepers say the convoy's cargo consisting of canned food, blankets, tents and power generators appears like it is intended for those manning the roadblocks, and not for the general Kosovo Serb population.
"I don't know if the Russian aid is a propaganda trick or something else," the top Western official overseeing Kosovo's independence, Pieter Feith, told Serbian reporters. "Although not surprising, the (Russian aid) initiative is not practical."
"Poverty and misery exist in Kosovo, but the U.N. and the EU have not proclaimed the north of Kosovo as a zone of a humanitarian catastrophe," Feith said.
Russian officials escorting the convoy accused Kosovo's peacekeepers of blocking passage. EU officials in Kosovo said the Russians can pass if they allow an international police escort.