The NATO military operation in Yugoslavia in 1999 was the consequence of a decade of civil wars in the Balkans. After the unified socialist state collapsed, previously frozen ethnic conflicts broke out in the region. One of the main hotbeds of tension was Kosovo. This region remained under the control of Serbia, although it was mostly Albanians who lived here.
Background
The mutual hostility of the two peoples was exacerbated by chaos and anarchy in neighboring Bosnia and Croatia, as well as different religious affiliations. Serbs are Orthodox, Albanians are Muslims. The bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 began due to ethnic cleansing carried out by the special services of this country. They were a response to the speeches of Albanian separatists who wanted to make Kosovo independent from Belgrade and annex it to Albania.
This movement was formed in 1996. The separatists formed the Kosovo Liberation Army. Its militants began to organize attacks on the Yugoslav police and other representatives of the central government in the province. The international community was stirred up when the army attacked several Albanian villages in response to the attacks. More than 80 people died.
Albanian-Serb conflict
Despite the negative international reaction, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic continued to pursue his tough policy against the separatists. In September 1998, the UN adopted a resolution that called on all parties to the conflict to lay down their arms. At this time, NATO defiantly prepared to bomb Yugoslavia. Under such double pressure, Milosevic retreated. The troops were withdrawn from peaceful villages. They returned to their bases. Formally, the ceasefire was signed on October 15, 1998
However, it soon became clear that the enmity was too deep and strong to be stopped by declarations and documents. The truce was periodically violated by both Albanians and Yugoslavs. In January 1999, a massacre took place in the village of Racak. The Yugoslav police executed more than 40 people. Later, the authorities of the country claimed that those Albanians were killed in battle. One way or another, but it was this event that became the final reason for preparing the operation, which resulted in the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
What caused the US authorities to initiate these attacks? Formally, NATO attacked Yugoslavia in order to force the country's leadership to stop its punitive policy against the Albanians. But it should also be noted that at that time an internal political scandal erupted in the United States, because of which President Bill Clinton was threatened with impeachment and deprivation of office. Under such conditions, a "small victorious war" would be an excellent maneuver to divert public opinion to foreign foreign issues.
On the eve of the operation
The latest peace talks failed in March. After their completion, the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 began. Russia also took part in these negotiations, the leadership of which supported Milosevic. Great Britain and the USA proposed a project providing for the creation of broad autonomy in Kosovo. At the same time, the future status of the region was to be determined according to the results of the general vote in a few years. It was assumed that until that moment NATO peacekeeping forces would be in Kosovo, and the forces of the Yugoslav Ministry of Internal Affairs and the army would leave the region in order to avoid unnecessary tension. The Albanians accepted this project.
This was the last chance that the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia would not have happened after all. However, representatives of Belgrade at the talks refused to accept the terms put forward. Most of all, they did not like the idea of the appearance of NATO troops in Kosovo. At the same time, the Yugoslavs agreed to the rest of the project. Negotiations broke down. On March 23, NATO decided it was time to start bombing Yugoslavia (1999). The end date of the operation (considered in the North Atlantic Alliance) was to come only when Belgrade agreed to accept the entire project.
The negotiations were followed closely by the UN. The Organization did not give the go-ahead for the bombing. Moreover, shortly after the start of the operation, the Security Council voted to recognize the United States as the aggressor. This resolution was supported only by Russia, North Korea and Namibia. And then, and today, the lack of UN permission to bomb NATOYugoslavia (1999) is considered by some researchers and ordinary people to be evidence that the US leadership grossly violated international law.
NATO Forces
The 1999 heavy NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was a major part of the Allied Force military operation. Under the air raids fell strategic civilian and military facilities located on Serbian territory. Sometimes residential areas suffered, including in the capital, Belgrade.
Since the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999), the photos of the results of which flew around the world, was an allied action, in addition to the United States, 13 more states took part in them. In total, about 1200 aircraft were used. In addition to aviation, NATO also involved maritime forces - aircraft carriers, attack submarines, cruisers, destroyers, frigates and large landing ships. 60,000 NATO troops took part in the operation.
The bombing of Yugoslavia continued for 78 days (1999). Photos of the affected Serbian cities were widely circulated in the press. In total, the country survived 35,000 sorties by NATO aircraft, and about 23,000 missiles and bombs were dropped on its land.
Start operation
On March 24, 1999, NATO aircraft began the first stage of the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999). The start date of the operation was agreed by the allies in advance. As soon as the Milosevic government refused to withdraw troops from Kosovo, NATO aircraft were put on alert. First under attackturned out to be the Yugoslav air defense system. For three days she was completely paralyzed. Thanks to this, the Allied aviation gained unconditional air superiority. Serbian planes almost did not leave their hangars, only a few sorties were carried out during the entire conflict.
Since March 27, intensified attacks on civilian and military infrastructure, including in large settlements, began. Pristina, Belgrade, Uzhice, Kragujevac, Podgorica - this is the list of cities that were affected by the first bombing of Yugoslavia. 1999 was marked by another round of bloodshed in the Balkans. At the very beginning of the operation, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, in a public speech, called on Bill Clinton to stop this campaign. But another episode was remembered much more strongly by contemporaries. On the day the planes began bombing Yugoslavia, Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov flew to the United States on an official visit. Having learned about what happened in the Balkans, he defiantly turned his board over the Atlantic and returned to Moscow.
Campaign Progress
At the end of March, Bill Clinton held a meeting with his NATO allies - the leaders of Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy. After this meeting, military strikes intensified. The city of Chachak was subjected to new bombings. At the same time, the Yugoslav special forces captured three NATO soldiers (all of them were Americans). They were later released.
April 12, a NATO F-15E aircraft was supposed to bomb the bridge (railroad tracks passed through it). However, the train was hitwho walked nearby and carried civilians (Easter was celebrated in Serbia on this day and many residents of the country went to relatives in other cities). As a result of the shell hit, 14 people were killed. It was just one of the senseless and tragic episodes of that campaign.
The bombing of Yugoslavia (1999), in short, was aimed at any objects of any importance. So, on April 22, a blow was struck at the headquarters of the Socialist Party of Serbia, which ruled the country. Allied planes also bombed the residence of Milosevic, who, however, was not there at that moment. On April 23, the Belgrade television center was destroyed. It killed 16 people.
Peaceful casu alties also appeared due to the use of cluster bombs. When the bombing of Nis began on May 7, it was planned that the target of the departure would be an airfield located on the outskirts of the city. For an unknown reason, the container with the bombs exploded high in the air, causing the shells to fly to residential areas, including a hospital and a market. 15 people died. After this incident, another international scandal arose.
On the same day, bombers mistakenly hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Three people were killed in this attack. Anti-American demonstrations began in China. Diplomatic missions in Beijing suffered serious damage. Against the backdrop of these events, delegates from both countries urgently gathered in the Chinese capital to settle the scandal. As a result, the US leadership agreed to pay more than $30 million in compensation.
The embassy was hit by mistake. in NATOplanned to bomb a nearby building that housed the Yugoslav arms export office. After the incident, the version that the Americans stopped short due to the fact that they used an outdated map of Belgrade was actively discussed. NATO denied these assumptions. Shortly after the end of the operation in the Balkans, the CIA colonel responsible for inquiring about allied ground targets resigned of his own accord. The bombing of Yugoslavia (1999) was full of such mistakes and tragedies. The causes of civilian deaths were later considered in the Hague courts, where the victims and their relatives filed many lawsuits against the United States.
Russian march on Pristina
In the 1990s, there was also a Russian group in the UN peacekeeping forces in the Balkans. She took part in the events in Yugoslavia at the final stage of the NATO operation. When, on June 10, 1999, Slobodan Milosevic agreed to withdraw his troops from Kosovo, effectively admitting defeat, the place of the Serbian military in the region was to be taken by the formations of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Literally a day later, on the night of the 11th to the 12th, the Russian combined battalion of the Airborne Forces carried out an operation to take control of the International Airport of Pristina, the capital of the region. The paratroopers were given the goal of occupying the transport hub before the NATO military did. The operation was completed successfully. The peacekeeping contingent included Major Yunus-bek Yevkurov, the future president of Ingushetia.
Losses
Afterthe operation in Belgrade began to count the losses caused by the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999). The losses of the country in the economy were significant. Serbian calculations spoke of 20 billion dollars. Important civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged. The shells hit bridges, oil refineries, large industrial facilities, and power generation units. After that, 500 thousand people were left without work in Serbia in peacetime.
Already in the first days of the operation, it became known about the inevitable casu alties among the civilian population. According to Yugoslav authorities, more than 1,700 civilians died in the country. 10,000 people were seriously injured, thousands more lost their homes, and a million Serbs were left without water. More than 500 soldiers died in the ranks of the Yugoslav armed forces. Basically, they fell under the blows of the activated Albanian separatists.
Serbian aviation was paralyzed. NATO maintained total air superiority throughout the operation. Most of the Yugoslav aircraft were destroyed on the ground (more than 70 aircraft). In NATO, two people died during the campaign. It was the crew of a helicopter that crashed during a test flight over Albania. Yugoslav air defense shot down two enemy aircraft, while their pilots ejected, and were later picked up by rescuers. The remains of the crashed plane are now kept in the museum. When Belgrade agreed to make concessions, admitted defeat, it became clear that now the war can be won if only aviation and bombing strategy are used.
Pollution
Environmental disaster is another large-scale consequence of the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999). The victims of that operation are not only those who died under shells, but also people who suffered from air poisoning. Aviation diligently bombed economically important petrochemical plants. After such an attack in Panchevo, dangerous toxic substances entered the atmosphere. These were compounds of chlorine, hydrochloric acid, alkali, etc.
Oil from destroyed tanks got into the Danube, which led to the poisoning of the territory not only of Serbia, but of all countries downstream of it. Another precedent was the use of depleted uranium munitions by NATO forces. Later, outbreaks of hereditary and oncological diseases were recorded in the places of their application.
Political Consequences
Every day the situation in Yugoslavia was getting worse. Under these conditions, Slobodan Milosevic agreed to accept a plan for resolving the conflict, which was proposed by NATO even before the start of the bombing. The cornerstone of these agreements was the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from Kosovo. All this time, the American side insisted on its own. Representatives of the North Atlantic Alliance stated that only after concessions from Belgrade would the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999) stop.
UN Resolution No. 1244, adopted on June 10, finally consolidated the new order in the region. The international community stressed that it recognized the sovereignty of Yugoslavia. Kosovo, which remained part of this state, received broad autonomy. The Albanian army had to disarm. An international peacekeeping contingent appeared in Kosovo, which began to monitor the provision of public order and security.
According to the agreements, the Yugoslav army left Kosovo on June 20th. The region, which received real self-government, began to gradually recover after a long civil war. In NATO, their operation was recognized as successful - it was for this that the bombing of Yugoslavia began (1999). Ethnic cleansing ceased, although mutual hostility between the two peoples persisted. Over the following years, the Serbs began to leave Kosovo en masse. In February 2008, the leadership of the region declared its independence from Serbia (Yugoslavia had completely disappeared from the map of Europe a few years before). Today, 108 states recognize Kosovo's sovereignty. Russia, traditionally pro-Serbian, considers the region part of Serbia.
