BELGRADE, August 4. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko on Friday honored the memory of those killed during Operation Storm when Serbs were driven out of Croatia and noted that the West is now using the same methods against Russians.

"With a heavy heart, grief and compassion, we remember the tragic events that began on August 4, 1995. As a result of the so-called Operation Storm, around 250,000 Serbs were ousted from their homes in Krajina. The anti-Serb operation was planned and conducted by Western special services and structures with the use of the Croatian army as manpower," he wrote on the X social network (formerly known as Twitter).

The Russian diplomat noted that the West is now doing the same thing, seeking to drive Russians out of Donbass. "The same mechanism and scenario is being seen in Ukraine, the same pattern and the same ruthlessness. And the same destiny that befell the Krajina Serbs was awaiting the Russians in Donbass should the West and the Kiev regime’s plans not be thwarted by Russia’s special military operation," he emphasized.

Operation Storm was staged by the Croatian military on August 4-5, 1995 to do away with the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina in Croatia. Around 2,500 Serbs were killed and about the same number went missing. Nearly 250,000 Serbs fled their homes. More than 25,000 houses where Serbs lived, some 13,000 Orthodox churches, museums and other facilities were destroyed.

August 5 is marked as a national mourning day in Serbia.

Croatia, on the contrary, marks this day as Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders, as it considers Operation Storm as "liberation from Serbian occupation."