Xhelal Sveçla, acting Minister of Internal Affairs, has announced that he has decided to declare Vladimir Luçiq, the director of Telekom Serbia, an undesirable person, or “persona non grata,” in the Republic of Kosovo. As a result of this measure, he is permanently barred from entering, staying in, or transiting through Kosovo.
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The decision was made after Luçiq declared that Telekom Serbia intends to expand its operations throughout the entire territory of Kosovo, but that, according to him, the country’s current government is an obstacle to this plan.
“We aim to expand throughout Kosovo, but the current government is preventing us,” Luçiq declared.
Reacting to this statement, Professor Gurakuç Kuçi, a senior researcher at the “OCTOPUS” Institute for Hybrid Warfare Studies, warned that Serbia’s infiltration into Kosovo’s institutions and political life is expected to increase.
According to Kuçi, the position expressed by Luçiq constitutes clear evidence of an activity that he views as part of Serbia’s hybrid warfare against Kosovo.
Kuçi said that, after returning from the United States, the director of Telekom Serbia made it clear in an interview with Serbian media that the company’s expansion throughout Kosovo is expected to take place after the current government is brought down. According to him, the stated objective is for the company to become Kosovo’s leading telecommunications operator and to attract Albanian customers as well.
He recalled that, on exactly the same date one year earlier, he had warned that Telekom Serbia is a state structure used for control, manipulation, intimidation and deep interference in the institutional life of Kosovo and the region. Kuçi stressed that this is no longer merely an analysis, since the company’s own director is publicly declaring the intention to expand throughout Kosovo and linking the implementation of this plan to political changes in Pristina.
In Kuçi’s assessment, Telekom Serbia’s growing presence in the region is linked to a broader strategy by Belgrade and is an inseparable part of the concept of the “Serbian World.” Through telecommunications, he said, the aim is to control regional spaces where Serbia is already present or seeks to establish a presence.
He cited Montenegro as an example, where Telekom Serbia entered in 2007, immediately after independence. Today, the company directly owns 51 percent of the shares through MTEL Podgorica, while the remaining 49 percent is held by MTEL Banja Luka, which is also controlled by Telekom Serbia.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to Kuçi, Telekom Serbia controls around 65 percent of Telekom Srpske/MTEL Banja Luka. Meanwhile, in North Macedonia, the company secured a license through MTEL in July 2021, initially offering television services, before expanding into mobile telephony in 2022.
Kuçi also mentioned unsuccessful attempts which, according to him, demonstrate the same expansionist orientation. In 2018, an offer worth approximately 60 million euros to purchase Telekom Albania was blocked by the Albanian government because of national security concerns. In Kosovo, meanwhile, the 155-million-euro offer to purchase IPKO in 2020 was not completed.
Within Kosovo, the cable operators VGN Net and HERC International were purchased through MTS d.o.o., a company wholly owned by Telekom Serbia. In this way, according to Kuçi, its presence in predominantly Serbian-inhabited areas was strengthened.
At the broader regional level, he said this dominant position was strengthened by the 652-million-euro agreement under which United Group sold NetTV Plus, the EON Sat/Total TV satellite business in Serbia and North Macedonia, as well as some Sport Klub assets in the region.
Kuçi stressed that Telekom Serbia itself has presented this expansion as part of a plan to become the leading company in the Western Balkans, with the objective of reaching 3 billion euros in revenue by 2030. At the same time, the structure has expanded into Germany, Austria and Switzerland, initially focusing on the diaspora, with the aim of later using it as a base for broader penetration.
In the final part of his response, Kuçi made serious allegations about the activities of Telekom Serbia and MTS d.o.o. in Kosovo, claiming that these structures have acted in violation of the country’s agreements and institutions.
According to him, the company directly violated the 2015 Brussels Agreement by illegally expanding its network, employing workers without Kosovo documents and obstructing security institutions. He claimed that MTS d.o.o. served as an instrument of Serbian intelligence, deleting from its databases any evidence related to the murder of Oliver Ivanović, concealing data about the terrorist attack in Banjska and helping to cover up traces of the other terrorist attack on the Ibër-Lepenc canal.
Kuçi said that the subversive nature of this structure was demonstrated again in 2025, when the bomb threat against Kosovo’s Assembly was sent from an MTS number. He added that, in March 2025, BIRN Serbia journalists were targeted through MTS numbers using Pegasus spyware, while Serbia’s BIA intelligence agency and police used Cellebrite devices to install NoviSpy on the phones of detained journalists.
According to Kuçi, Telekom Serbia’s most dangerous form has been its presentation as a “Western investor.” He said that Luçiq had created a sophisticated diplomatic shield through discussions in Washington about the 5G network, artificial intelligence and financing from Exim Bank.
Kuçi assessed that the aim is to realize the “Serbian World,” using American support as a shield for advancing Serbia’s interests. According to him, whenever Pristina imposes bans or regulatory measures against this strategy, Belgrade immediately portrays them as obstruction of American investment and as an attempt to create divisions between Kosovo and the United States.
He described Telekom Serbia as a digital “Trojan Horse” serving the implementation of the “Serbian World” project in the Western Balkans. To achieve this objective in Kosovo, as Luçiq himself has stated, Kuçi said coordinated political actions are needed to enable penetration into the country’s institutions and political life.
Concluding his statement to “Bota sot,” Kuçi said that, in the digital age, every investment must also be assessed from a security perspective, describing this case as a lesson in how to respond to hybrid warfare.
