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Europe triggered conflict in Ukraine and is responsible for it — Serb politician

Dragan Markovic is certain that Serbia’s refusal to take sanctions against Russia is the correct stance, because sanctions will not stop war

BELGRADE, March 16. /TASS/. Europe is responsible for the crisis in Ukraine which it has triggered itself, the leader of the United Serbia party, parliament member Dragan Markovic said on TV on Wednesday.

"It is those who bombed Serbia that are now speculating about people dying in Ukraine more than anybody else. How many civilians were killed in Serbia in the bombing raids on the Varvarin Bridge on an Orthodox holiday, on a passenger train in Grdelica, a whole street in Aleksinac, where there are no military facilities at all, on Nis, and on bridges in Novi Sad? We experienced all that and, believe me, we find it terrible to see people flee their homes. We love both peoples, though our ties with Russia are tighter. I believe that those who started all this must bear the brunt of responsibility," he said. "Europe claims this is a great injustice. But what about Operation Storm then?"

Markovic is certain that Serbia’s refusal to take sanctions against Russia is the correct stance, because sanctions will not stop war. He believes it is essential to conduct talks with Russia and Ukraine and achieve a compromise.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 launched a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a plea for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He said Moscow had no plans for an occupation of Ukrainian territories. After that the United States, the European Union, Britain and a number of other states said they were imposing sanctions against Russian individuals and economic entities.

NATO’s aggression against Serbia

NATO’s aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999 lasted for 78 days. The alliance’s leadership argued that the main reason for the operation codenamed Allied Force was prevention of genocide of Kosovo’s Albanians. According to NATO’s sources its aircraft flew 38,000 sorties and carried out 10,000 bombing strikes.

The bombardments killed, according to different estimates, 3,500-4,000, and left about 10,000 others (two-thirds of them civilians) injured. The material damage totaled $100 billion. During the three months of bombardments NATO forces dropped on Serbia 15 tonnes of depleted uranium in bombs and shells. After that the country’s cancer rates surged to first place in Europe. In the first ten years following the bombardments about 30,000 developed cancer and an estimated 10,000-18,000 of them died.