Western Balkans leaders meet in London for talks on migration and security

LONDON (AP) — Leaders of six Western Balkan nations met British and European officials in London on Wednesday for talks on migration, security and economic growth in a volatile region where Russia seeks to wield influence.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer told heads of government from Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia that their region is "Europe’s crucible – the place where the security of our continent is put to the test.”

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and diplomats from several other European nations also joined the one-day summit at the government's Lancaster House mansion. It was held as part of the Berlin Process, launched in 2014 to keep the southeastern European countries working toward EU membership.

The only Western Balkan nation to join the EU is Croatia, which became a member in 2013. Progress for the others has stalled, with countries at various stages of the journey, and in recent years tensions have flared between Serbia and Kosovo, a former Serbian province whose independence is not recognized by Belgrade, a traditional ally of Russia.

The EU’s openness to accept new members has grown since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. There are concerns the war in Ukraine and Russia’s deepening confrontation with the West could spill over into a region still scarred by its own conflicts.

As the summit started Britain extended until the end of 2028 its participation in the quarter century-old NATO-led peacekeeping force for Kosovo.

The U.K. is hosting the annual summit despite leaving the EU in 2020. Starmer’s center-left government is hoping to make progress on tackling the drug trade, bolstering Western Balkan nations’ defenses against interference from Moscow and — a particular British priority — curbing unauthorized migration.

Gangs have smuggled hundreds of thousands of people to the EU via the Western Balkans in recent years, and Britain says a quarter of migrants reaching the U.K. in small boats across the English Channel have traveled through the region.

“There’s a criminal route through the Western Balkans bringing illegal migrants to the U.K., and we’re determined to shut it down by working with European partners,” Starmer said.

Britain imposed sanctions Wednesday on several Balkan criminal gangs and financiers it says facilitate people smuggling. Those banned from traveling to Britain or using the U.K. financial system include members of the Kosovo-based Krasniqi forgery network and ALPA Trading FZCO, a company alleged to finance people-smuggling gangs.

Britain is hoping to build on a joint task force with Albania that has helped — through a returns agreement and local projects in areas the migrants come from — reduce the number of Albanian migrants trying to reach the U.K., from 12,000 in 2022 to some 600 in 2024.

Britain also has sent law enforcement officers to the region to work with the EU border agency, Frontex, and it is seeking countries willing to host “return hubs” where rejected asylum-seekers could be held until they can be deported.

The leaders of Albania and Montenegro both expressed reluctance to have return hubs on their soil.

“When it comes to the hubs, or whatever they are called, I’ve said it, and I repeat — never in Albania,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Tuesday at the Chatham House think tank.

Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said his country is “not part of the migrant routes through the Balkans” because its railway infrastructure isn’t developed enough.

He said might be willing to accept a migrant returns hub if Britain agreed to “invest 10 billion euros into building railways.”

Leaders and delegates prepare to pose for the group photo during a Western Balkans Summit in London, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, flanked by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, left, and Montenegro's Prime Minister Milojko Spajic, hosts the plenary session of the Western Balkans Summit Western Balkans Summit in London, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomes Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to a meeting of leaders of six Western Balkan nations with British and European officials at a Western Balkans Summit in London, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski to a meeting of leaders of six Western Balkan nations with British and European officials at a Western Balkans Summit in London, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti arrives for a meeting of leaders of six Western Balkan nations with British and European officials at a Western Balkans Summit in London, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to a meeting of leaders of six Western Balkan nations with British and European officials at a Western Balkans Summit in London, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Members of the armed forces prepare for the arrival of leaders of six Western Balkan nations and British and European officials for a Western Balkans Summit in London, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

Britain's King Charles III greets the Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania Edi Rama, during a reception for Western Balkans leaders at St James's Palace, London, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, on the eve of the Western Balkans Leaders' Summit. (Aaron Chown/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, left, speaks with the President of the Government of the Republic of Serbia Duro Macut, during a reception for Western Balkans leaders at St James's Palace, London, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, on the eve of the Western Balkans Leaders' Summit. (Aaron Chown/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's King Charles III greets the Prime Minister of Montenegro Milojko Spajic, during a reception for Western Balkans leaders at St James's Palace, London, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, on the eve of the Western Balkans Leaders' Summit. (Aaron Chown/Pool Photo via AP)

Cumberland, Md. (AP) — Three members of the Zizians, a cultlike group linked to six deaths across the U.S., were granted permission Friday to work together in preparation for their upcoming trial on trespassing, weapons and drug charges.

Jack LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank are among a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists drawn together by radical beliefs about veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.

Authorities have described LaSota, a transgender woman known as Ziz, as the apparent leader of the “extremist group." Since 2022, Zizians have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord’s subsequent killing, the deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left another member and a U.S. Border Patrol agent dead.

LaSota, Zajko and Blank were arrested in February after a property owner said he found them living in box trucks on his land in Frostburg, Maryland. Zajko was charged in Vermont with lying on her application to buy the gun used to kill agent David Maland in January 2025, while LaSota faces separate federal charges of being an armed fugitive.

On her way into the courthouse Friday, LaSota accused prosecutors of pressuring the trio to commit perjury by accepting plea deals and said, “They're violating our speedy trial rights.” Friday's hearing was supposed to include discussions of the trio's motions to dismiss the charges and logistics of the trial that begins Feb. 9. Much of the agenda was postponed until Jan. 30 after Zajko indicated a desire to fire her attorney.

Earlier, Allegany County Circuit Court Judge Michael Twigg agreed to allow the trio to work together on their defense. Since their arrest, LaSota and Blank have been allowed to meet, but Zajko was kept apart in what she described as “absurdly difficult circumstances.”

When the prosecutor told the judge he had reason to believe the three had already been communicating amongst themselves, LaSota interjected, “In the car ride here!”

“We should be able to talk to each other without being recorded and without fear of our notes being intercepted," LaSota said.

“We're adults. We have work to do, and we want to do our work," Zajko said.

At one point, all three spoke up in support of each other.

“I repudiate any notion of protecting me from our codefendants,” LaSota said.

“I do, too,” said Zajko.

“As do I,” Blank said.

In the Vermont case, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Zizians member Teresa Youngblut, who has pleaded not guilty to murder for her alleged involvement in the shootout. Though she initially faced lesser charges, President Donald Trump's administration had signaled early on that more serious charges were coming as part of its push for more federal executions.

At the time of the shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns and wearing black tactical gear. She is accused of opening fire on border agents who pulled the car over on Interstate 91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut.

Two other members of the Zizians group are awaiting trial in connection with the 2022 attack on a landlord in California that left another member dead. Zajko has been called a person of interest in the deaths of her parents later that year, and another member of the group is charged with killing the landlord three days before the Vermont shooting.

—

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

In this image from video, Michelle Zajko, who is associated with a cultlike group known as Zizians that is linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

In this image from video, Daniel Blank, who is associated with a cultlike group known as Zizians that is linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

In this image from video, Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, who is at the center of a cultlike group known as Zizians and linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

In this image from video, Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, who is at the center of a cultlike group known as Zizians and linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)