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You are daft.

The right of self-determination is indeed a fundamental right, but it has to be pursuant to law. Without law, there is anarchy, chaos, and barbarism. Man established law in order to create and maintain order. Sometimes it works; sometimes it does not.

According to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), international law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence; rather, the matter is up to the parties involved, and should follow the law or laws of the existing state.

The Ukrainian constitution was not followed vis-à-vis the independence movements of the Donbas region and Crimea. But, you know that. Thus, any independence declared by those regions is illegitimate, and is not recognized by international law.

Now, let’s move on to Kosovo.

After WWII, the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY for convenience) was created, establishing six republics, one of which was Serbia. Within Serbia were two autonomous provinces: Vojvodina in the north, and Kosovo in the south (but I have already explained this to you). Anyway, with the dissolution of the FPRY the various republics vied for power and dominance. Hence, the Balkans Wars of the 1990s.

The majority group in Kosovo were the ethnic Albanians. They did not want to be part of Serbia. Thus, the Kosovo War of 1998-1999, which pitted the Yugoslav Army (Serbs and Montenegrans) and the ethnic Serbs against the Kosovo. Liberation Army (KLA) and the ethnic Albanians.

According to the UNHCR, the Kosovo War was very disruptive for Kosovo. The war saw some 210,000 minority peoples (i.e., non-ethnic Albanian) displaced.

The deaths from this war have been tabulated as follows (rounded to the nearest whole): 13,500 total, from all sides. Of these, some 11,000 were ethnic Albanians (including some 2,000 KLA forces); 2,200 Serbs (including some 1,000 Serb army and police forces); some 560 Roma and others. 1,650 were declared missing, of which some 400 are Serbs.

Clearly, the ethnic Albanians got the short end of the stick in casualties. But, that is neither here nor there, other than to illustrate that the Serbs were not the disproportionate victims you appear to be claiming.

As I had pointed out in a previous post, in 1999, subsequent to the Kosovo War, Kosovo became a UN Transitional Administrative State, to have autonomy within Serbia. Serb troops withdrew. The KFOR was established in Kosovo to keep the peace.

In 2008 Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Serbia went to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to argue its case that Kosovo had no right to secede. Unfortunately for Serbia, the ICJ ruled against it in a 10-4 majority decision, holding that the secession did NOT violate international law and did not violate Resolution 1244 (addressed in an earlier post).

Because the Serbian constitution did not specifically address secession, the ICJ rejected Serbian claims that the move had violated its territorial integrity and “concluded that the declaration of independence on 17 February 2008 did not violate general international law”.

To date, 97 countries have recognized Kosovo’s independence. Of the five Security Council members (each holding veto power), three (US, UK, and France) recognize it; China has taken a wait-and-see position; only Russia opposes it.

But, Kosovo has a stronger argument for independence than Crimea or the DPR and LPR in the Donbas.

It doesn’t really matter what you or I think about Kosovo’s legitimacy as an independent state. And, this may surprise you, but I am on the fence about it, mainly because the Serbia constitution does not specifically address it. And, can we look to history for guidance? Yes. We can look to the United States in 1861. The US constitution, as the Serbian constitution, is also silent on secession; but subsequent rulings have held that the US constitution does not allow for secession.