PRISTINA, Kosovo -- NATO in Kosovo says Ukraine will pull out most of its troops from its peacekeeping mission in the Balkan country by the end of the month.

The Ukrainian soldiers will be replaced by additional Hungarian peacekeepers, NATO said in statement Monday. Ukraine has some 160 soldiers serving in the NATO-led peacekeeping force known as KFOR and Hungary has over 200 troops. Some Ukrainian military staff will remain but the alliance did not specify how many.

NATO sent 50,000 soldiers in 1999 after a 78-day air war forced Serb troops to withdraw and end a brutal crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians. The alliance now has some 5,000 troops in Kosovo.