Maqedonci says construction of ammunition factory has started near Djakovica in Kosovo and Metohija

Photo: Shkumbin Saneja/Wikipedia

The minister of defense of the provisional institutions in Pristina in the technical mandate, Ejup Maqedonci, has said that work has begun near Djakovica to build the first ammunition factory in so-called Kosovo.

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After visiting the construction site in Jahoc, near Djakovica, along with the outgoing prime minister of the provisional institutions, Albin Kurti, Maqedonci said that the factory will produce 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm caliber ammunition.

According to Maqedonci's Facebook post, the production of machines, laboratories and other technical equipment for the factory near Djakovica is being completed in Turkey.

Last October, an agreement was signed between the provisional institutions in Pristina and the Turkish state company Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (Makine ve Kimya Endustrisi) to build this factory. It was stated at the time that the production capacity will be 20 million bullets per year.

In recent years, Pristina has intensified acquisition of weapons, and on May 6, an agreement was signed with Turkey on military-financial cooperation, allowing Turkey to provide Pristina with slightly less than 4 million euros for the so-called Kosovo Security Forces (KSF).

Pristina has already acquired TB2 Bayraktar and Skydagger drones from Turkey, as well as American Puma drones.

Last December, Pristina announced that it was buying US mobile artillery systems HUMVEE Hawkeye 105mm Mobile Howitzer (MHS), and at the end of November that the process of acquiring Black Hawk helicopters from the US was underway.

In addition, Pristina in March 2025 signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of defense with Croatia and Albania.

According to UN Security Council Resolution 1244, KFOR is the only armed force allowed in Kosovo and Metohija, and that document also provided for the demilitarization of the so-called KLA and other armed ethnic Albanian groups.

However, in 2009, Pristina formed the so-called Kosovo Security Force (KSF) from the Kosovo Protection Corps, i.e. the former KLA. In 2018, the assembly of the provisional institutions - without the presence of Serb representatives - adopted a law on the transformation of the so-called KSF into an army.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)