MINSK, October 28. /TASS/. The West apparently wants to repeat the experience of the 1990s aggression against the Serbs in its current confrontation with Russia, leader of the Bosnian Serbs Milorad Dodik said.

"It is absolutely clear to us that today we are witnessing the recurrence of the situation in the Balkans, the recurrence of what was done to the Serbs," he said at the third Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security.

According to Dodik, what happened in the Balkans was "a mere rehearsal" ahead of confrontation with Russia. In his words, today Europe "looks like a project that is heading to its collapse."

NATO’s bombardments

On March 24, 1999, NATO began a military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. NATO leadership claimed that the prevention of genocide against the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo was the main rationale for launching the operation, dubbed Allied Force. NATO said that during the 78-day operation its aircraft flew 38,000 sorties to carry out 10,000 bombing strikes.

According to Serbian experts, NATO fired some 3,000 cruise missiles and dropped 80,000 tons of bombs, including cluster and depleted uranium munitions, over the three months of the bombing campaign. According to Serbian data, the bombardments killed 3,500-4,000 people and injured another 12,500, two thirds of them civilians. Material damages totaled $100 billion.