Kosovo , [ a ] officially the Republic of Kosovo , [ b ] is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the north and east, and North Macedonia to the southeast. It covers an area of 10, km 2 4, sq mi and has a population of approximately 1. Kosovo has a varied terrain, with high plains along with rolling hills and mountains , some of which have an altitude over 2, m 8, ft.
Its climate is mainly continental with some Mediterranean and alpine influences. The territory remained in the Byzantine Empire , facing Slavic migrations in the 6th and 7th centuries CE. Control shifted between the Byzantines and the First Bulgarian Empire. In the 13th century, Kosovo became integral to the Serbian medieval state and the establishment of the Serbian Patriarchate. Ottoman expansion in the Balkans in the late 14th and 15th centuries led to the decline and fall of the Serbian Empire ; the Battle of Kosovo of , in which a Serbian-led coalition of various ethnicities fought against the Ottoman Empire, is considered one of the defining moments.
The Ottoman Empire fully conquered Kosovo after the Second Battle of Kosovo , ruling for nearly five centuries until Kosovo was the centre of the Albanian Renaissance and experienced the Albanian revolts of and Tensions between Kosovo's Albanian and Serb communities simmered during the 20th century and occasionally erupted into major violence, culminating in the Kosovo War of and , which resulted in the Yugoslav army's withdrawal and the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo.
Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February [ 17 ] and has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by member states of the United Nations. Serbia does not officially recognise Kosovo as a sovereign state and continues to claim it as its constituent Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija , but it accepts the governing authority of the Kosovo institutions as part of the Brussels Agreement.
Kosovo is a developing country, with an upper-middle-income economy. It has experienced solid economic growth over the last decade as measured by international financial institutions since the onset of the financial crisis of โ In December , Kosovo filed a formal application to become a member of the European Union.
