Large amounts of lumber have been cut illegally in the Toplica District of southern Serbia; a local forestry company spokesman told the Beta news agency on Thursday.

Atlantic Council official Damon Wilson told Voice of America that the delivery of Russian armored vehicles to Serbia is harmful and irresponsible.

A country that is on its way to the European Union should not accept weapons from Moscow, the Atlantic Council Executive Vice President said, adding that the supply of Russian arms to Serbia is an attempt to obstruct the normalization of the situation in the region.

Regional broadcaster N1 reports that the Defense Ministry said that the Serbian military gets its biggest donations from Russia and added the Ministry Informer did not publish the correct figures because it did not include donations which are underway. Thus, the Ministry denied Serbian media reporting that US was the biggest donator to the Serbian Army.

The new US Ambassador to Serbia Anthony Godfrey told a Senate hearing that the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations would be his priority during his term as Washington‘s envoy.

Serbia is a political and economic leader and plays the key role in regional stability.

Kosovo’s deputy Defense Minister Burim Ramadani said on Tuesday that the arming of Serbia with Russian weapons is a threat to the Balkan region, Pristina press reported. Belgrade based daily Blic reports that US is the biggest donator for the Serbian Army.

Ramadani is quoted as saying that this is Serbia’s and Russia’s revenge against NATO member states. Serbia has turned into a mini-Russia and this causes concern across the region, reports regional broadcaster N1.

Representatives of the authorities and the opposition met behind closed doors on Tuesday as part of preparations for a dialogue on elections conditions.

NATO fully respects the sovereign right of all states, including Serbia, to choose their own political and security arrangements, the Alliance said on Monday in a reply to Radio Free Europe on the Russian donation of armored vehicles to the Serbian armed forces.

The NATO statement said that RFE should ask official Bucharest about the decision to block the transport of those vehicles via the Danube through Romania.

Serbian prime Minister Ana Brnabic said in Poznań on Friday that her Kosovo counterpart Ramush Haradinaj told her the news on Pristina’s ban on Belgrade's officials’ visits to Kosovo was fake news, the Beta news agency reported.

Brnabic, who attends the Western Balkans Summit in Poland, as a part of the Berlin Process, said she was surprised that the advisors to “the so-called Foreign Minister spread fake news,” adding “she was glad (the news was fake since that reduces tensions in the region).”

Serbia’s Public Prosecutors’ Office told N1 that the Special Prosecutors for Hi-Tech crime launched a probe into the threats to N1 Kosovo correspondent Zana Cimili.

Cimili received severe menace on social networks against her and her family’s physical integrity, the Beta news agency reported late on Thursday.

Zana Cimili, an N1 reporter from Pristina, received severe menace on social networks to her and her family’s physical integrity, the Beta news agency reported late on Thursday.

N1 Kosovo correspondent receives threats

The person who made the threats said it had “a life desire to kill an Albanian, even an Albanian child,” adding it hoped “for a new war in Kosovo during which the Albanians will feel Serbian rage.”