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| Yugoslavia 25 years after: Putin advised on the Russian seizing of the aerodrome at Pristina |
| 2024-03-25 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] Russian President Vladimir Putin said that during the events in Yugoslavia in 1999, he was asked for advice about the seizure of Stalin's airport in Pristina. In June 1999, the Russian military took control of Stalin Airport hours before NATO forces expected to seize it. “I was then the secretary of the Security Council, and the chief of the general staff, then General Kvashnin, came to me. He told me that there is an idea to seize this airport,” the head of state said in an interview for the film “Belgrade” on the Rossiya TV channel. The head of state added that the then Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin talked and asked his opinion. In those years, Putin served as Secretary of the Security Council. Putin then told Kvashnin: “If you think it’s appropriate, do it.” At the same time, Kvashnin understood that the Russian military would have to leave there someday, but they would have something to bargain with. Today, March 24, marks the 25th anniversary of the start of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. NATO aircraft carried out the first strike on March 24, 1999. As a result of the bombing, between 3.5 and 4 thousand people were killed and about 10 thousand were injured. Material damage amounted to up to $100 billion. The Russian Embassy in Washington also said that the United States is trying in vain to make the world community forget that the massive bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 began on their initiative. As Putin noted, what the West did to Yugoslavia in 1999 is unacceptable. The head of state pointed out that a war had actually started in the center of Europe. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on March 24 that the question of NATO's responsibility for the damage caused by the bombing of Yugoslavia is still open. The department added that none of the NATO representatives were punished for these actions. Serbian politician Alexander Vulin called the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia the last large-scale and unpunished crime of the 20th century. He said that NATO aggression should have killed Serbia, but killed international law. Residents of the country are still dying from cancer after NATO used depleted uranium ammunition. More from regnum.ru Russian Foreign Ministry: NATO will not wash away the shame of war crimes The North Atlantic Alliance will never be able to wash away the shame of war crimes, and no one believes in NATO’s demagoguery about “defending freedom and democracy.” This is stated in a statement by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with the 25th anniversary of the start of the North Atlantic Alliance's aggression against Yugoslavia. “The Alliance will never wash away the shame of war crimes. Nobody believes in his demagoguery about protecting freedom and democracy,” the foreign policy department said. The Foreign Ministry emphasized that the United States and other NATO members have no right to talk about the introduction of some new “rules-based order,” since all their efforts to build the “global security architecture” they declare are, by definition, malicious and toxic, and also targeted only to ensure the neocolonial hegemony of Western countries. The US concern about respecting the rights of Kosovo Albanians was initially false and was only a false pretext for reprisals against the Serbs, the department noted. “Russia, together with its partners in Belgrade, will continue to resist attempts to distort the history of the Yugoslav crisis, shift the emphasis to demonizing the Serbs and justifying the 1999 aggression. Insulting the memory of the innocent victims of NATO executioners is unacceptable,” the Foreign Ministry added. As Regnum reported, earlier on March 24, Serbia commemorated the children who died as a result of NATO bombing in 1999. Russian Ambassador to the Republic Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, together with the head of Rossotrudnichestvo Evgeny Primakov, laid flowers at the monument to the deceased three-year-old girl Milica Rakich. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the West started a war in Europe by bombing Yugoslavia in 1999. The head of state also called these actions by NATO a huge tragedy, emphasizing that the alliance began military operations against Yugoslavia without a UN Security Council resolution. NATO began bombing Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999, citing the alleged “genocide” of the Albanian population in Kosovo as a pretext. Before this, an armed confrontation between Albanian separatists from the Kosovo Liberation Army and the army and police of Serbia began in the republic. The exact number of victims of the alliance's airstrikes could not be established. According to Serbian estimates, about 2.5 thousand people were killed during the NATO bombing, including 89 children. Another 12.5 thousand people were injured. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #2 It seems the Russians did not plan properly - drove overnight from Tuzla with insufficient water and were begging it from the Brits almost immediately. That brought a few chuckles and a bit of wry humor: “We’ll kill’em with kindness.” |
| Posted by: Joluger Omeremble1257 2024-03-25 14:36 |
| #1 https://www.wikiwand.com/en/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia The NATO bombing killed about 1,000 members of the Yugoslav security forces in addition to between 489 and 528 civilians. Wikiwand |
| Posted by: Huputle Cherelet4131 2024-03-25 08:42 |