BELGRADE, August 4. /TASS/. EU and NATO countries bear responsibility for the bloodshed during the disintegration of Yugoslavia, including war crimes during Croatia’s Operation Storm in 1995, as they contributed to the disintegration of the unified Yugoslav state, the Russian Embassy in Serbia said in a statement.

"The so-called Operation Storm, carried out by Croatian armed forces with Western support in August 1995, became one of the most tragic pages in the recent history of the Balkans. Those responsible for this ethnic cleansing have, for the most part, never received the punishment they deserved. NATO and European Union states bear particular responsibility for the bloodshed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, whose intervention contributed to the country's disintegration and the escalation of interethnic conflicts," the Russian embassy stated.

The Russian diplomatic mission emphasized that NATO and the EU "continue to be guided by double standards, disregarding the principles of equality and justice." The Russian embassy emphasized that the West is ignoring the suffering of the Serbian people, while giving a "completely different" political and media treatment to similar events in other regions. "Russia consistently advocates for the preservation of historical truth. We are convinced that without an honest assessment of the tragedy suffered by the Serbian people during Operation Storm, it is impossible to achieve genuine reconciliation and stability in the Balkans," the embassy noted.

The Russian diplomatic mission also noted that the experience of the events in Serbian Krajina "convincingly demonstrates the catastrophic consequences of encouraging nationalist radicalism." The Russian embassy emphasized that eliminating this threat to the Russian population of Donbass and Novorossiya is the most important condition for a lasting resolution of the Ukrainian crisis.

Operation Storm was conducted by the Croatian Armed Forces on August 4-5, 1995. It resulted in the liquidation of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina on Croatian territory. During the operation, about 2,500 Serbs were killed, the same number went missing, and almost 250,000 became refugees. More than 25,000 Serb-owned homes, as well as 13,000 Orthodox churches, museums, and other sites, were destroyed. In Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, this day is considered a day of national mourning; Belgrade annually declares August 5 a day of mourning, and Banja Luka, August 4. In Croatia, the operation is considered "liberation from Serbian occupation." August 5 is an official public holiday there – Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders.