The Kosovo Force (KFOR) is a NATO-led international peacekeeping military force in Kosovo. KFOR is the third security responder, after the Kosovo Police and the EU Rule of Law (EULEX) mission, respectively, with whom NATO peacekeeping forces work in close coordination. Its operations are gradually reducing until the Kosovo Security Force, established in 2009, becomes self-sufficient.
KFOR entered Kosovo on 12 June 1999, one day after the United Nations Security Council adopted the UNSC Resolution 1244. At the time, Kosovo was facing a grave humanitarian crisis, with the Yugoslav Army in action against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in daily engagements. Nearly one million people had fled Kosovo as refugees by that time, many of whom left permanently.
Currently, 33 states contribute to the KFOR, with a combined strength of 5,249 military personnel.
Objectives
KFOR focuses on building a secure environment and guaranteeing the freedom of movement through all Kosovo territory for all citizens, irrespective of their ethnic origins, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
The Contact Group countries have said publicly that KFOR will remain in Kosovo to provide the security necessary to support the final settlement of Kosovo authorities.
Structure
KFOR contingents were grouped into five multinational brigades and a lead nation designated for each multinational brigade. All national contingents pursued the same objective to maintain a secure environment in Kosovo.
In August 2005, the North Atlantic Council decided to restructure KFOR, replacing the five existing multinational brigades with five task forces, to allow for greater flexibility with, removing restrictions on the cross-boundary movement of units based in different sectors of Kosovo. Then in February 2010, the Multinational Task Forces became Multinational Battle Groups, and in March 2011, KFOR was restructured again, into just two multinational battlegroups; one based at Camp Bondsteel, and one based at Peja.
In August 2019, the KFOR structure was streamlined. Under the new structure, the former Multinational Battlegroups are reflagged as Regional Commands, with Regional Command-East (RC-E) based at Camp Bondsteel, and Regional Command-West (RC-W) based at Camp Villaggio Italia.
Structure 2023 Kosovo Force, at Camp Film City, Pristina Headquarters Support Group (HSG), at Camp Film City; Joint Logistics Support Group (JLSG), in Pristina (Logistics and engineering support) Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Battalion (ISRBN), at Camp Film City Regional Command-East (RC-E), at Camp Bondsteel near Ferizaj (U.S. Army force supported by Greece, Italy, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey) Regional Command-West (RC-W), at Camp Villaggio Italia near Peja (Italian Army force supported by Austria, Croatia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey) Multinational Specialized Unit (MSU), in Pristina (Military Police, crowd and riot control, peacekeeping operations regiment composed entirely of Italian Carabinieri) KFOR Tactical Reserve Battalion (KTRBN), at Camp Novo Selo, near Vushtrri (composed entirely of Hungarian Army troops) Kosovo Force Office, at Skopje International Airport
Contributing states
At its height, KFOR troops consisted of 50,000 men and women coming from 39 different NATO and non-NATO nations. The official KFOR website indicated that in 2008 a total 14,000 soldiers from 34 countries were participating in KFOR. The following list shows the number of troops which have participated in the KFOR mission. Most of the force has been downsized since 2008; current numbers are reflected here as well:
Active Country Membership Strength NATO EU 126 57 150 3 125 5 151 36 35 70 4 308 121 408 13 907 142 44 44 2 70 247 1 188 42 108 3 200 382 46 590 31 26 21 4,657
Withdrawn Country Membership Year of withdrawal NATO EU
KFOR commanders Sir Michael Jackson (United Kingdom, 10 June 1999 – 8 October 1999) Klaus Reinhardt (Germany, 8 October 1999 – 18 April 2000) Juan Ortuño Such (Spain, 18 April 2000 – 16 October 2000) (Norway, 6 April 2001 – 3 October 2001) (France, 3 October 2001 – 4 October 2002) (Italy, 4 October 2002 – 3 October 2003) Holger Kammerhoff (Germany, 3 October 2003 – 1 September 2004) (France, 1 September 2004 – 1 September 2005) (Italy, 1 September 2005 – 1 September 2006) (Germany, 1 September 2006 – 31 August 2007) Xavier de Marnhac (France, 31 August 2007 – 29 August 2008) (Italy, 29 August 2008 – 8 September 2009) (Germany, 8 September 2009 – 1 September 2010) Erhard Bühler (Germany, 1 September 2010 – 9 September 2011) (Germany, 9 September 2011 – 7 September 2012) (Germany, 7 September 2012 – 6 September 2013) Salvatore Farina (Italy, 6 September 2013 – 3 September 2014) Francesco Paolo Figliuolo (Italy, 3 September 2014 – 7 August 2015) Guglielmo Luigi Miglietta (Italy, 7 August 2015 – 1 September 2016) Giovanni Fungo (Italy, 1 September 2016 – 15 November 2017) Salvatore Cuoci (Italy, 15 November 2017 – 28 November 2018) Lorenzo D'Addario (Italy, 28 November 2018 – 19 November 2019) Michele Risi (Italy, 19 November 2019 – 13 November 2020 ) Franco Federici (Italy, 13 November 2020 – 15 October 2021) Ferenc Kajári (Hungary, 15 October 2021 – 14 October 2022 ) Angelo Michele Ristuccia (Italy, 14 October 2022 – 10 October 2023 ) Özkan Ulutaş (Turkey, 10 October 2023 – 10 October 2024) Enrico Barduani (Italy, 11 October 2024 – 3 October 2025) Özkan Ulutaş (Turkey, 3 October 2025 – )
Note: The terms of service are based on the official list of the KFOR commanders and another article.
Kosovo peacekeeping
Events On 9 June 1999 the Military Technical Agreement or Kumanovo Agreement between KFOR and the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia was signed by NATO General Sir Mike Jackson and Yugoslavia Colonel General Svetozar Marjanovic concluding the Kosovo War. This agreement outlined a rapid withdrawal of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Forces from Kosovo, assigning to the KFOR Commander the airspace control over Kosovo and pending the later United Nations Security Council Resolution's approval, the deployment of KFOR to Kosovo. On 10 June 1999 the United Nations Security Council adopted the UNSC Resolution 1244 authorizing the deployment in Kosovo of an international civil and security presence for an initial period of 12 months, and to continue thereafter unless the UNSC decides otherwise. The civil presence was represented by the United Nations Mission In Kosovo (UNMIK), while the security presence was led by KFOR.
Following the adoption of UNSCR 1244, General Jackson, acting on the instructions of the North Atlantic Council, made immediate preparations for the rapid deployment of the security force (Operation Joint Guardian), mandated by the United Nations Security Council. The first NATO-led elements entered Kosovo at 5 a.m. on 12 June. On 21 June, the UCK undertaking of demilitarization and transformation was signed by COMKFOR and the Commander in Chief of the UCK (Mr. Hashim Thaci), moving KFOR into a new phase of enforcing the peace and supporting the implementation of a civil administration under the auspices of the United Nations.
Within three weeks of KFOR entry, more than half a million out of those who had left during the bombing were back in Kosovo. However, in the months following KFOR deployment, approximately 150,000 Serbs, Romani and other non-Albanians fled Kosovo while many of the remaining civilians were subjected to violence and intimidation from ethnic Albanians.
October 28, 2000 the first Municipal Assembly Elections were held. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe(OSCE) announced that approximately 80% of the population participated in this vote for local representatives. The final results were certified by the Special Representative for Kosovo of the UN Secretary-General, Bernard Kouchner, on 7 November.
KFOR was initially composed of 40,000 troops from NATO countries. Troop levels were reduced to 26,000 by June 2003, then to 17,500 by the end that year. Combat troops were reduced more than support troops. KFOR tried to deal with this by transferring tasks to UNMIK and the Kosovo Police Service (KPS), but UNMIK was also reducing its number of international police, and KPS were not numerous enough or competent enough to take over from KFOR.
The 2004 unrest in Kosovo was the worst ethnic violence since 1999, leaving hundreds wounded and at least 14 people dead. On 17 and 18 March 2004, a wave of violent riots swept through Kosovo, triggered by two incidents perceived as ethnically motivated acts. The first incident, on 15 March 2004, an 18-year-old Serb was shot near the all Serb village of Čaglavica, near Pristina. On 16 March, three Albanian children drowned in the Ibar River in the village of Čabar, near the Serb community of Zubin Potok. A fourth boy survived. It was speculated that he and his friends had been chased into the river by Serbs in revenge for the shooting of Ivić the previous day, but this claim has not been proven. According to Human Rights Watch, the violence in March 2004 left 19 dead, 954 wounded, 550 homes destroyed, twenty-seven Orthodox churches and monasteries burned, and leaving approximately 4,100 Serbs, Roma, Ashkali (Albanian-speaking Roma), and other non-Albanian minorities displaced. Nineteen people, eight Kosovo Serbs and eleven Kosovo Albanians, were killed and over a thousand wounded-including more than 120 KFOR soldiers and UNMIK police officers, and fifty-eight Kosovo Police Service (KPS) officers.
The 10 February 2007 protest in Kosovo resulted in 2 deaths and many injuries. A crowd of ethnic Albanians in Pristina protested against a UN plan, also known as the Ahtisaari Plan, they felt fell short of granting full independence for Kosovo. The proposals, unveiled 2 February, recommended a form of self-rule and was strongly opposed by Serbia. The UN Security Council did not endorse the plan.
On February 17, 2008 unrest followed Kosovo's declaration of independence . Some Kosovo Serbs opposed to secession boycotted the move by refusing to follow orders from the central government in Pristina and attempted to seize infrastructure and border posts in Serb-populated regions. There were also sporadic instances of violence against international institutions and governmental institutions, predominantly in North Kosovo. After declaring independence, the Kosovo government introduced new customs stamps, a symbol of their newly declared sovereignty. Serbia refused to recognize the customs stamps which led to the de facto prohibition of both direct import of goods from Kosovo to Serbia, as well as transit to third countries. Goods from Serbia, however, could still be freely imported into Kosovo. Pursuant to the Statement by the President of the Security Council on 26 November 2008 (S/PRST/2008/44), UNMIK was restructured and its rule of law executive tasks were transferred to EULEX. EULEX maintains a limited residual capability as a second security responder and provides continued support to Kosovo Police's crowd and riot control capability.
The 25 August 2009 Pristina protests resulted in vehicle damages and multiple injuries.
On 22 July 2010, the International Court of Justice delivered its advisory opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence declaring that "the adoption of the declaration of independence of the 17 February 2008 did not violate general international law because international law contains no 'prohibition on declarations of independence'," nor did the adoption of the declaration of independence violate UN Security Council Resolution 1244, since this did not describe Kosovo's final status, nor had the Security Council reserved for itself the decision on final status.