Russian President Vladimir Putin has commented that he remembers the war in Europe: the North Atlantic Alliance launched it against Yugoslavia, including the bombing of Belgrade. The Russian leader explained that this was a bad example, “but he was”.
“The Federal Chancellor has just said that people of his generation – I belong to this generation – have a hard time imagining any war in Europe,” Putin told a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. . The Russian head of state added that this was said in connection with the situation around Ukraine, reported TASS.
“But you and I have witnessed a war in Europe unleashed by the NATO bloc against Yugoslavia,” Putin said.
He recalled that at that time a large military operation was carried out with missile and bomb strikes on one of the European capitals – Belgrade.
“It happened. Without the sanction of the UN Security Council. It’s a very bad example, but it was,” Putin said.
On 24 March 1999, NATO launched an Allied air offensive against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without the sanction of the UN Security Council, which lasted 78 days. The Alliance’s leadership called the main reason for the aggression “the prevention of genocide against the Albanian population in Kosovo”. According to NATO, the alliance’s air force made 38,000 take-offs during the operation, with more than 10,000 targeting bombings.
As a result of the bombings, 3,500 to 4,000 people were killed and about 10,000 were injured, two-thirds of them civilians, according to Serbian figures. The material damage amounts to 100 billion dollars. During the three months of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, 15 tonnes of depleted uranium were dumped on shells in Serbia. After that, the country ranked first in the number of oncological diseases in Europe, and in the first 10 years after the bombings about 30 thousand people fell ill with cancer in the republic, of which from 10 thousand to 18 thousand died.
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