Motives of armed group which clashed with the Macedonian police are not yet known, and the moment in which the conflict happened is suitable for people who like “wild goose chase”, says an analyst from Skopje, Saso Ordanoski. “They see the escalation of the situation through multi-ethnic grounds, in order to avoid possible political responsibility for some criminal activities that were done. We do not even know the details about the whole situation, we do not even have information where the other terrorists are, and we do not know how many civilians were killed during the operation.

The paper’s front-page editorial notes that Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Isa Mustafa have called on the FYROM authorities to conduct transparent and credible investigations into the Kumanovo clashes, “but first they [Jahjaga and Mustafa] should ask our own security mechanisms what they know about several Kosovars who were involved in the latest events there”.

Publicist Enver Robelli argues in his opinion piece that the outbreak of violence between Albanians and Macedonians is primarily in the interest of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. “Being uninterruptedly in power since 2006, Gruevski has managed to bring under his full control the state, the most important sectors of the economy, to intimidate and make his servants the majority of the media and to practically suspend the activities of the opposition,” Robelli writes.

Kosovo's leaders have condemned "any involvement" of the territory's citizens in a weekend gunbattle in neighboring Macedonia that left eight police officers and 14 suspected gunmen dead.

Kosovo's President Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Isa Mustafa issued the condemnation in a joint statement on May 11, as Macedonia was observing a second day of national mourning after the shoot-out in the town of Kumanovo.

President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Isa Mustafa have expressed their deep concern over the recent events in Kumanovo, FYROM, and condemned any involvement of the people of Kosovo. After a meeting today, Jahjaga and Mustafa called for a transparent and credible investigation into the recent events and expressed the readiness of Kosovo institutions to help in the process. “Republic of Kosovo remains committed to a multiethnic, stable Macedonia, committed to equal rights for all communities and implementation of Ohrid Agreement,” a joint Jahjaga-Mustafa statement reads.

The Basic Court in Skopje has set a 30 day detention of 30 individuals suspected of several criminal offenses related to events that occurred in Kumanovo in the last few days, Koha reports, citing Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) news sites. "Of those detained, 18 are believed to be citizens of Kosovo, two citizens of FYROM with temporary residence in Kosovo, nine citizens of FYROM and one Albanian citizen residing in Germany."

The leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ramush Haradinaj, told Radio Dukagjini that he is shocked with the recent events that happened in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).  Haradinaj said that  Albanians have never been better in the recent history than they are currently. “Albania is in NATO, Kosovo is independent while the Albanians in FYROM have moved forward, even though there is some stagnation,” Haradinaj said. He expressed confidence that the Albanians in FYROM to be united to enforce their legitimate rights to equality.

Reports about the killing of Xhafer Zymberi, allegedly member of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, in weekend’s clashes between armed groups and FYROM police, could not be confirmed by AAK. A senior AAK official said they have no official information of Zymberi’s death. “I don’t know why there are attempts to involve the AAK in these events because this person [Zymberi] is part of AAK leading structures or a member of the party,” the unnamed official said.

The military security agency (VBA) chief says Serbian security services had warned their Macedonian colleagues in April about a possible "attack" there.

"Albanian terrorists who carried out the attack in Kumanovo had been in that part of Macedonia for a while, but, our Macedonian colleagues believed that these stories were exaggerated," said Petar Cvetkovic.

Police and Customs services performed their duties normally at the Presevo border crossing, during the clashes in Kumanovo. The buses, transporting tourists to the resorts in Greece were regularly passing.  Border police denied the allegations of some media that the crossing was closed during the fiercest escalation of conflicts, which occurred between FYROM security forces and armed Albanian groups.