MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The events that preceded the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO forces in 1999 were a "difficult civil war," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a conversation with TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov during the preparation of the "Belgrade" documentary that was aired on the Rossiya-1 TV channel on March 24.
"The first step was, of course, the issue of the internal conflict," he said. "I will not provide assessments now as to who was guilty of what and what goals they pursued."
He noted that "this was fueled both from the inside and from the outside, and, well, led to a sort of internal confrontation - basically, a very difficult civil war."
On March 24, 1999, NATO started its military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The alliance stated the "prevention of genocide of the Albanian population in the republic" as the main goal. According to NATO statistics, the allied aviation carried out 38,000 sorties during the 78 days of operation.
According to researches of military experts, NATO launched 3,000 cruise missiles, dropped about 80,000 tons of bombs, including with cluster and depleted uranium payload. According to Serbian statistics, between 3,500 and 4,000 people were killed, with about 12,500 injured, two thirds of those being civilians. According to Serbian specialists, 15 tons of depleted uranium were dropped on Serbian territory during the three months of operation. After that, this country became the top country in Europe in terms of cancer cases; during the first 10 years after the bombings, about 30,000 people got cancer, and 10,000 to 18,000 died. The material damage stands at up to $100 billion.