For four years the flag stood in the centre of Pristina. Huge, Ukrainian, put up in 2022 as a public gesture of solidarity after Russia attacked Ukraine. A day after Zelensky spoke about Kosovo in Belgrade, the flag is gone. Nobody explained why. Nobody has to - the image speaks for itself.

What Zelensky said was neither insulting nor new. He said what Kyiv has repeated for years: Ukraine respects the territorial integrity of its partners, that is international law, and that position applies to the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo as well. Nothing has changed, he said. The problem is that part of Pristina thought something had changed - or at least hoped so.

Support is not a contract

Former president Behgjet Pacolli responded that the message was deeply disappointing and recalled that Kosovo had helped Ukraine. The war veterans' organisation called the statement anti-Kosovo. From Tirana came a diplomatic reply rejecting any comparison between Kosovo and Ukraine.

All of that is understandable. But behind it stands an uncomfortable truth the Balkans keeps forgetting: solidarity is not a currency that buys recognition. A country that helped you owes you nothing beyond the help it gave. When hope is built on that, disappointment is only a matter of time.

Why this touches us

Macedonia recognised Kosovo in 2008 and has lived with the consequences of that decision in its relations with Belgrade ever since. Pristina is now learning the same lesson from the other side - that recognition is a geopolitical calculation, not a reward for good behaviour. Five EU member states still do not recognise Kosovo. Not one of them changed its mind out of solidarity.

A flag is the thing that comes down fastest. The question is what remains when the pole is empty - and whether anyone in Pristina will draw the right conclusion, instead of counting whose feelings were hurt.