EU sends more troops to Bosnia as Russia defends Serb leader

BELGRADE — The EU is boosting the size of its peacekeeping mission in Bosnia after recently convicted Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik banned state-level institutions in Serb regions, sparking separatist fears.

The EU “will temporarily increase the size of its force,” the European Union Force Bosnia Herzegovina, or EUFOR, said in a statement late Friday. “This is a proactive measure aimed at assisting Bosnia and Herzegovina in the interest of all citizens,” it said.

EUFOR said the increase will occur “in the coming days” but gave no details. Local media reports say the EU will add 400 troops to its 1,100-strong force next week.

Operation Althea, as the Bosnia mission is called, ensures the implementation of the peace agreement signed following the 1992-1995 war in the country. Dodik, the head of the Serb-majority region, was convicted of defying that agreement in late February.

Russia criticized the one-year jail sentence and six-year ban on political activity handed down by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Feb. 26, calling it “politically motivated.” Moscow convened an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the matter last Tuesday.

Dodik has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, echoing his anti-Western stance — claiming Brussels has no business interfering in countries like Ukraine and Bosnia.

Bosnia became an EU candidate country in December 2022.

Ultranationalists have protested in support of Dodik. And the parliament of Bosnia’s Serb-majority region passed laws banning the operations of the state-level security, intelligence, judiciary and prosecution institutions within the Serb entity.

This is in line with years-long threats by Dodik that if he and his allies continue to be prosecuted by Bosnian institutions he considers “illegitimate,” then he will proceed to launch the secession of the Serb entity from Bosnia. A similar sentiment launched the war in the country during the 1990s, leading to more than 100,000 being killed and the Srebrenica genocide of Bosniak Muslims.

Bosnia’s peace agreement and subsequent constitution set up a complex system of power-sharing between the country’s three main ethnic groups — the Croats, the Bosniaks and the Serbs — and Dodik’s actions have placed the Serbs in a direct standoff with the rest of the country.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also condemned Dodik’s moves.

“The actions of Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik are undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina’s institutions and threatening its security and stability,” Rubio said in a post on X on Friday. Rubio called on “partners in the region to join them” in pushing back against this “dangerous and destabilizing behavior.”