Arben Fetoshi, who heads the Institute for Hybrid Warfare Studies “Octopus,” considers the campaign featuring screen trucks on the streets of New York to be part of a broader communications strategy. According to him, the initiative, which disseminates claims of the oppression and discrimination of Kosovo’s Serb community, aims to influence Western public opinion and portray the state as “repressive.”
In his analysis titled “The ‘victimization’ trucks in New York,” Fetoshi describes the action as a joint maneuver by Serbia and Russia targeting the West, with the ultimate goal of “criminalizing” Kosovo. He considers it important that the timing and location chosen for the action were not accidental.
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The screen trucks appeared in the city shortly before the start of the General Debate and High-Level Week at the UN General Assembly, a period when New York becomes the center of global political, diplomatic and media attention. This fact, Fetoshi emphasizes, significantly increases the potential impact of the message being conveyed.
Although the organizers present the action as a “humanitarian” initiative, the analyst notes that it uses authentic images from various periods but edits them into a single sequence. The aim, he says, is to create a false perception of an uninterrupted cycle of “persecution” against Serbs in Kosovo.
“This is a propaganda apparatus that has selected real footage from events occurring at different times, turning it into ‘evidence’ of the ongoing lynching of Serbs. This is further reinforced by messages expressing support for President Trump,” the analysis states.
The screens broadcast footage from the March 2004 riots, as well as arrests, protests and institutional interventions carried out in the years that followed. Fetoshi argues that by removing these events from their historical context and combining them into a single narrative, the aim is to create the impression of a consistent pattern of “violence” against Serbs.
One difference stands out compared with the previous two years. At that time, the trucks also displayed claims about crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army, an element absent from the reports so far about this year’s campaign. Fetoshi explains this omission by linking it to recent statements by Dačić, who interpreted a certain decision as confirmation of Serbian allegations that the KLA was a “criminal organization.”
The analysis directly links the visual campaign on the streets of New York to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s warnings about the speech he will deliver at the UN General Assembly. For Fetoshi, the screen trucks serve as a “parallel visualization” of the same political line. At the same time, he notes that this construct fully aligns with Russia’s promoted thesis about the “double standards” applied by the West.
The material also mentions statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as the way the RT Balkan outlet titled the event: “Kurti’s terror against Serbs has reached New York.” According to Fetoshi, “The Serbian and Russian trap in New York is pressure on the West over the ‘mistake’ of 1999.”
He explains that the Serbian side is attempting to argue that a “criminal war by the KLA” serves as the foundation of a “criminalized” state, which received support through “NATO aggression” and is now continuing a policy of “terror” against Serbs. At the same time, Russia is trying to “prove” that the Alliance’s intervention was illegal and expose the “hypocrisy” of the Western powers. For this reason, the analysis concludes, “the screen trucks in New York have exported the most dangerous ‘product’ for Western values and cohesion, for US leadership and for the fragile peace in the Balkans.”
