Russian President Vladimir Putin has unequivocally condemned the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, labeling it as unacceptable. He pointed out that the West essentially sparked a war in the heart of Europe with this action.
"What the West has done is utterly unacceptable. They directly initiated a conflict right in the heart of Europe," Putin said in the documentary "Belgrade," directed by TASS's General Director Andrei Kondrashov, and aired on the Russia-1 television channel.
Scheduled to premiere on Sunday, this documentary commemorates the 25th anniversary of those events, with the TV channel having released only a teaser thus far.
The NATO military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia commenced on March 24, 1999. Dubbed "Allied Force," the primary objective of the air campaign was to prevent genocide against the Albanian population in Kosovo, as stated by the alliance leadership. According to NATO reports, the operation lasted 78 days, during which member countries' aviation conducted 38,000 combat sorties.
Military experts estimate that 3,000 cruise missiles were fired, and approximately 80,000 tons of bombs were dropped, including cluster bombs and those containing depleted uranium. Serbian data suggests that between 3,500 and 4,000 people were killed, with around 12,500 injured, two-thirds of whom were civilians. Serbian experts claim that during the three-month bombing campaign, NATO forces dropped 15 tons of depleted uranium on Serbian territory, leading to Serbia ranking first in Europe for cancer rates. In the decade following the bombing, approximately 30,000 people developed cancer, with 10,000 to 18,000 fatalities. Material damages were estimated at $100 billion.
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Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS