More roadblocks were set up overnight in northern Kosovo, where tensions have been running high in recent weeks between the ethnic Albanian-led government and the ethnic Serbian community.
Kosovar police told RFE/RL on December 27 that the two new roadblocks appeared in Mitrovica and in Zvecan.
"In the north of the country, during the night, criminal persons/groups have continued to set up consisting of heavy vehicles, further impeding the freedom of free movement," police said.
In Tirana, a protest was held on December 27 in front of the Serbian Embassy, with participants chanting, "Move your hands from Kosovo, Mitrovica is ours."
The protest in the Albanian capital was organized by activists from civil society who asked the government of Albania to set conditions for relations with Serbia and freeze all agreements signed with Belgrade. In addition to citizens from Albania, the protest drew citizens of Kosovo and North Macedonia.
Kosovo, which has an overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority, broke away from Serbia after a war in 1998-99.
It declared independence in 2008, but Belgrade has never recognized it and encourages Kosovo's 120,000 ethnic Serbs to defy the central Kosovar government's authority.
Northern Kosovo has been especially on edge since November, when hundreds of Serbian workers embedded in the Kosovo police as well as the judicial branch like judges and prosecutors walked off the job in protest at a controversial decision to ban Serbs living in Kosovo from using Belgrade-issued license plates.
The policy was scrapped by Pristina but the mass walkouts created a security vacuum in Kosovo.
On December 10, hundreds of ethnic Serbs, outraged over the arrest of an Serbian ex-police officer, set up roadblocks in northern Kosovo and paralyzed traffic through two border crossings.
The roadblocks have been set up also amid a rise in reported shootings, the latest of which was occurred late on December 25, according to NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR.
Late on December 26, Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said Belgrade's armed forces were on "the highest level" of alert, highlighting the increasingly strained relations between the two neighbors.
On December 22, more than 1,000 ethnic Serbs protested in northern Kosovo to demand the release of detained Serbs and other conditions that they say must be met before they will remove several roadblocks erected in the area.
In a message on December 22, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic voiced Belgrade's support for the demands of the Serbs in northern Kosovo.