A major crossing point between Serbia and Kosovo reopened on Thursday, marking an easing of tensions after Western calls for calm amid one of the region’s worst crises in years, AFP reported.

Kosovo police confirmed that the checkpoint on the Serbian side of the Merdare border crossing has been dismantled and the main crossing point with Serbia, which was closed the day before, has reopened.

Footage from the Serbian state broadcaster RTS showed queues of cars and trucks forming on the Serbian side. According to RTS, Serbia canceled the heightened state of combat readiness it introduced for its troops on the night from Monday to Tuesday.

Kosovo Serbs on Thursday began dismantling the largest roadblock in Rudare, near the city of Mitrovica, moving the first of twelve trucks parked across the road, an AFP correspondent found.

Dismantling of other roadblocks in other places has also begun, and the release of roads should be completed by Thursday evening, RTS reports.

On Wednesday night, after calls for de-escalation from Washington and the European Union, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced the dismantling of roadblocks that had been in place for nearly three weeks.

“The barricades will be dismantled, but mistrust remains,” Vucic said during a meeting with representatives of Kosovo Serbs near the border with Kosovo.

Apparently to ease tensions, a court in Pristina on Wednesday ordered the release and house arrest of former Serbian policeman Dejan Pantic, whose arrest sparked outrage among the Serbian minority.

According to an AFP correspondent, the situation in northern Kosovo was calm on Thursday morning, with international peacekeeping patrols. In Mitrovica, two trucks blocking the bridge burned down at night. The cause of the fire is unknown.

In Rudare, a dozen demonstrators gathered at the checkpoint on Thursday to express their displeasure with the idea of ​​removing it. “It doesn’t make sense, we fought for rights that were not received, we feel betrayed,” one of them, aged 25, told AFP.

“Why did we come to the dams if it’s going to end like this?” said another 38-year-old protester.

Controlled conflict

Since December 10, several hundred representatives of the Serbian minority have set up roadblocks in northern Kosovo to protest the arrest of a Serbian police officer.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said last week that the situation in the region is “on the verge of an armed conflict.”

Kosovo police and international peacekeepers have come under several gun attacks.

Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008, a decade after a bitter war between Serbian forces and Albanian rebels. But Serbia does not recognize this.

Belgrade is encouraging the Serbian minority to abandon any loyalty to Pristina as Kosovo authorities seek to assert sovereignty over the entire territory.

In early November, hundreds of Kosovo Serb police officers, as well as judges, prosecutors and other officials, marched en masse to protest Pristina’s now-suspended decision to ban Serbs living in Kosovo from using Serbian-issued license plates.

In a message posted on Twitter, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell welcomed the lifting of the roadblocks, noting that “diplomacy prevailed in de-escalating tensions in northern Kosovo.”

NATO also welcomed “efforts to de-escalate tensions in northern Kosovo.” “We expect all parties to honor their commitments,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said on Twitter.

For his part, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that he was satisfied with the latest events. “It’s even better that this happens without the intervention of our police,” he said.

Serbian political scientist Aleksandar Popov said tensions in Kosovo are so high that “one bullet is enough” to change the situation.

“Pristina gave Serbs reason to protest with arrests, blockades were organized by Belgrade and international forces to prevent escalation,” he told AFP. “As soon as it seemed that it was getting out of control, the West stopped everything by diplomatic means,” Popov concluded.