MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Russia, together with Serbia, remembers the inhumane bombing of Belgrade by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and this atrocity must never be forgotten, Sergey Naryshkin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and chairman of the Russian Historical Society (RHS), said.
"Yesterday and today, Russia and Serbia were recalling these tragic events from 26 years ago. The barbaric bombing of Belgrade, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, by NATO aviation and the bombing attacks on other towns and villages resulted in numerous casualties and destroyed infrastructure. Certainly, this atrocity must not be forgotten and will not be forgotten," he said at a roundtable on the history of fighting against colonialism.
Bombing of Yugoslavia
NATO launched a military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999. The bloc’s leadership claimed that the main goal of Operation Allied Force was to prevent genocide against the Albanian population of Kosovo.
According to NATO’s data, aircraft from the alliance’s member states conducted 38,000 sorties during the 78-day operation, with more than 10,000 of them carrying out bombing attacks. According to Serbian data, the bombardments killed 3,500 to 4,000 people and injured about 10,000, two-thirds of whom were civilians. Financial damage amounted to $100 billion.
Over the three months of bombing, NATO forces dropped 15 tons of depleted uranium in munitions on Serbian soil. Since then, the country has been ranked first in Europe in terms of oncological diseases. During the first decade after the bombings, about 30,000 people developed cancer in the republic, and 10,000-18,000 of them died.