Pristina throw. Russian stolen victory
"Lord have mercy! Lord, have mercy! ”- the words of the national Serbian prayer song were heard at a concert in honor of the delegation of Russian paratroopers in the mining town of Uglevik in the east of the Republic of Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A group of paratrooper officers from Russia led by the former chief of staff of the Airborne Forces Lieutenant General Nikolai Staskov arrived here to celebrate the 14 anniversary of the legendary march of the landing battalion in Kosovo. In June, 1999, this news stirred the world - the Russian landing right in front of the NATO avant-garde seized Slatina Airport, a key object in Kosovo. The Serbs took heart. The march of the landing battalion of many Russians then caused a sense of pride in the country and the army.
After 14, this date was hardly noticed in Russia, except for a couple of messages in the media. “They did not notice” her in Belgrade, where today they are increasingly looking towards the West. But in a modest 18-thousand Uglevik, where the headquarters of the brigade of Russian peacekeepers was located ten years ago, our paratroopers are remembered and loved. “Serbia is alive while Russia lives”, - the words from the same song performed by Serbian girls became the quintessence of this memory ...
The Russian delegation was met by the chairman of the Serbian-Russian Union Savo Tsvetinovic, in the past one of the leaders of the Serbian police, and now a postal worker. Together with the officers of the Airborne Forces, he restored peace and order in the long-suffering land of the Republika Srpska. Loyalty to the oath, patriotism and pro-Russian orientation and cost him a high position and a career in the police. It was too inconvenient for the henchmen of the international community, the “guards” of the IPTF (international police), too honest, too disposed towards the Russian peacekeepers.
Cvetinovich is one of those who do not change their views depending on the conjuncture. Now such people are in great shortage in Serbia, and in Russia as well. Russian paratroopers for him - the most expensive guests in the world.
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The acute phase of the conflict in the Balkans is extinguished. Gradually the wounds are healed, the heroes and traitors of that war, which flared up on the fragments of Yugoslavia and the skating rink that traveled by the fate of living people, by family, friendship and past unity of peoples, are disappearing into the past. Grass thickets roads and wrecks of burned and abandoned houses. Yugoslavia is no more, and, as the Serbs themselves say, there will be no more. The reasons and reasons for the collapse of the country turned out to be much stronger and more effective than those braces that had sewed the Yugoslavia from the time of Tito. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbs, Muslims and Croats are divided into entities, segregating in their territories, on opposite sides of the line of separation of the parties, drawn by the international community.
Refugees settled in new homes, transferring to the housewarming even the graves of their ancestors. Now there are far fewer towns and villages with a mixed population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, although on the former line of demarcation Serb villages still alternate with Muslim ones. In 90-x, when there were battles, local Serbs, fleeing snipers, installed plywood shields along the roads from the prevailing heights, and put cloth and blankets on the ropes, blocking their view.
To the south, in 600 kilometers southeast of Uglevik - Kosovo field, historical for the Serbs, a place that in the 90s of the 20th century turned into a pain for the Serbian people. The tragedy of the Serb genocide of the 2000s was superimposed on the defeat in the battle with the Ottomans seven centuries ago.
... The memory relentlessly relates us to those days of the 90, when foreign military contingents were brought into Bosnia and Herzegovina. The political leadership of the leading world states, destroying, as it seemed to them, “the last stronghold of communism in Europe”, “destroyed” by their actions and tore apart the territory of the former Yugoslavia on religious and national grounds, initiating one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20 century. All this, of course, in the name of democracy and justice. The end justified the means ...
Serbs were left with less and less living space. The Dayton Accords in December 94 became the legalization of the new reality.
The peacekeeping units of the Airborne Forces of Russia carried service in the Republika Srpska at that time, which, according to many of its inhabitants, was a guarantee of the safety of the population and prevented new clashes. The task is to separate the opposing sides, withdraw weaponto build a peaceful life. In fact, the US military was on duty side by side with our paratroopers. What was unusual was that the potential adversaries, who had been preparing to fight each other for many years, carried out a peacekeeping mission as part of the same organizational and staff structure of the multinational division North, representing the interests of their countries in the region.
“We were enemies, but we met each other not on the battlefield, but as peacekeepers,” recalls General Nikolai Staskov. - Unusual state, given our training. Here they learned to communicate in a peaceful environment. Gradually, they worked together, although at first it was not easy. ”
Ex-Chief of Staff of the Airborne Forces of Russia Nikolay Staskov at the location of the headquarters of the Russian peacekeeping brigade in Uglevik, Republika Srpska with a delegation of Russian paratroopers
A division of American Rangers is located at the headquarters of the Airborne Brigade of Russia, officers of the Russian engagement team in the interests of Russian peacekeepers performed tasks at the American Eagle base in Tuzla.
The attitude of the population to the peacemakers was specific - the Americans, here, to put it mildly, did not like, and in the Russians they saw fraternal protection. According to Nikolai Staskov, public confidence in our military men who served in the posts patrolling the area of responsibility then played a major role in normalizing the situation. The shots ceased to sound, the explosions thundered, people gradually returned to peaceful life: "The friendship between the Russian and Serbian peoples, which is a constant value, has affected."
The fact that the team of Russian paratroopers was firmly established in the Republika Srpska, having deployed, in addition to the headquarters, subunits, posts, an operational group that independently analyzed information and transferred it to Russia, did not like the American command, which demanded unconditional subordination. “Partners” constantly complained to Moscow about the initiative commanders of the Russian landing force. For example, the Western media accused General Staskov almost of disrupting the Dayton Accords, calling him a “gun without a fuse”.
From the history
In January, a separate brigade of airborne forces of 1996 men was sent to participate in the peace operation of the multinational force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On the night of June 11-12, 1999, a battalion of Russian paratroopers made a dashing throw from Bosnia to Kosovo in a few hours, capturing a strategically important object - the Slatina airfield and ahead of tank columns of NATO troops. After that, in accordance with UN Security Council resolution No. 1244, on the basis of a decree of the President of Russia and in accordance with the “Agreed Points of Russian Participation in KFOR Forces” signed by the Russian and US Defense Ministers on Helsinki on 18.06.1999/3616/XNUMX, it was decided to send a military contingent to Kosovo RF numbering XNUMX people.
The Russian Airborne Forces on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, together with NATO, participated in the conduct of two peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo. In BiH, paratroopers controlled the territory with a total area of - 1750 km2. The total length of the controlled line of separation of the parties - 75 km. The units were located in the 3-x base areas (2 in the territory of the Republika Srpska - Uglevik and Surf, 1 - in the territory of the BiH Federation - Simin-Khan).
Bombs are real and psychological
... The time was troubled - NATO was preparing its aggression against Yugoslavia, then Kosovo events followed. In the spring of 1999, NATO bombers lined up in combat echelons to conduct (think of the term!) “Humanitarian bombardments” of Greater Serbia’s infrastructure right above the base area of the Russian brigade. To the border of all is nothing - less than 30 km.
Once the air carousel spun right in the sky over Uglevik when the Yugoslav MiG took an unequal battle with the two newest American fighters, was shot down and, leaving a plume of smoke, began to leave in the direction of Serbia. Serbian pilot managed to eject. He was wounded, picked up by local residents and, having provided medical assistance, he was flown across the border with Serbia. And on the ground for several days the search groups of the American contingent roamed, with the task of capturing the downed pilot.
Leaflet for military personnel of the FRY Armed Forces in KOSOVO distributed aviation NATO in March-June 1999. Caption: "Thousands of bombs ... obeying the will of the world, will continuously pour on your unit." Signature on the back: "Warning FRY Armed Forces: LEAVE KOSOVO! NATO uses B-52 bombers armed with 225-kilogram MK-82 bombs against FRY units in KOSOVO and METHODIA. One B-52 can carry up to 50 of these bombs! These planes will fly in until they stop your atrocities and drive you out of KOSOVO and METHODIA. If you want to survive and see your families again, drop your weapon "
At this time, the entire population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the Republika Srpska, was subjected to active psychological pressure from Western countries. These places have become a kind of testing ground for “running in” of new information technologies and their further use in other regions of the world. Thousands of American specialists in psychological struggle launched their work, creating mass media, connecting local TV channels and radio stations, organizing talk shows, distributing leaflets, etc. Psychological combat officers from the Russian brigade opposed this stream, creating a different information background in the Serbian media, and often, as the Americans themselves admitted, they won in these duels on the air, on the screens and on newspapers.
With the intensification of the operation of squeezing Serbs from Kosovo, besides bombs, rockets and shells, Serbian troops and civilian objects from the air rained leaflets threatening to bomb endlessly. Processing consciousness of military people and the population did not stop for a minute. It can be said that in the Balkans, NATO forces won in the information sphere, since the damage inflicted from the air by the Yugoslav army in Kosovo was minimal.
Here, in practice, strategies and tactics were worked out, methods and methods of waging information warfare were tested.
The scale of the special operations of NATO says this fact - one day the wind suddenly changed, and a half million leaflets dropped on Serbia, carried to the territory of neighboring Hungary. Paper rain fell on the heads of stunned Hungarians. The leaves read: “Thousands of bombs ... obeying the will of the whole world, will continually pour on your unit ... Warning Sun FRY: leave Kosovo! NATO uses B-52 B-bombers armed with X-NUMX-kilogram MK-225 bombs against units of the Armed Forces of the FRY in Kosovo and Metohija. One B-82 can carry up to 52 such bombs! ... These planes will fly until they stop your atrocities and expel you from Kosovo and Metohija. If you want to survive and see your families again, drop your weapons ... ”
... But one cannot say that in this confrontation Yugoslavia was doomed. Yes, in Belgrade, headquarters, military and civil infrastructure buildings, and social facilities were subjected to blows. Cruise missiles and smart bombs hit objects marked with “beacons” placed by American agents. But the Yugoslav army did not bear the losses that were expected in Washington and Brussels. The Serb military units successfully maneuvered, using camouflage and heat traps for NATO missiles. The air defense forces gradually learned to fight air targets, knocking down the “invisible” F-117 “Stealth” and a pair of “Mirage.” The army has retained the backbone and combat capability ... But the systematic information and psychological treatment of the Serbs bore fruit — the official Belgrade accepted the terms of the ultimatum of the international community. The territory of Kosovo, along with the Albanian formations, was occupied by the Americans, the British and their allies. Moscow’s demands to include Russia in the format of the operation in Kosovo with a view to ending the genocide of the Serbian population were ignored. Under these conditions, an adventurous and risky decision was made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Airborne Forces ’headquarters — the advance detachment in a separate paratrooper battalion to make a seven-hundred-kilometer march to the very heart of Kosovo, ahead of the NATO units that had begun to advance along the Serbian territory, capture the Slatina airfield and to ensure the landing of the main forces of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. It is significant that even Yeltsin, who will be reported on the operation after its completion, did not know about this plan. Such secrecy justified itself on all 100% - at least, the pro-Western encirclement of the Russian president turned out to be completely unaware, not having had time to imagine the situation in the light necessary for him and to derail the throw of the landing battalion.
“I dream of a march at night”
It looked like a picture from another life - flowers on the armor, Serbian girls kiss Russian soldiers, stormy glee. The battalion of Russian paratroopers threw a position at the Slatina airfield in Kosovo. How did the military prepare and conduct this march? These questions began a conversation with the immediate participant of the events described, the commander of the Russian landing battalion advancing to Kosovo, Colonel Sergey Pavlov.
- NATO aircraft over our camp lined up in battle formations and went to Belgrade. We still patrolled our area of responsibility, performed peacekeeping tasks within the framework of the mandate. There was not even a hint that we could move somewhere. But honestly, I had a premonition. Premonition often helps me out, did not let me down even then. I suddenly felt that events were coming in which we would be active participants, although I personally had two months before the replacement.
Usually during this period, any commander is not particularly zealous in the service. And I have just the opposite. The people said: “What did this find for the battalion commander? After all, it was already time for him to relax and prepare for the rotation?”
In May, we completed the transfer of equipment for the summer period of operation. I approached this question very seriously and firmly asked from my subordinates, with an emphasis on the quality of the translation. Ultimately, this is what has become the guarantee of success.
In preparation for the march in 700 km, we were allocated the entire 8 hours! No one had a more rigid time frame in my memory, even in the Airborne Forces. Can anyone repeat what we managed then? The big question. I'm not sure.
That night we had to shoot three posts. People were far away in the mountains, the connection was lame. While they passed, while they duplicated, while we were correctly understood and we gathered everyone, it took time. People got the feeling that something serious was being prepared. The tension was universal, but to be afraid, I did not see.
... It was time "H" and our column was set in motion ... When the military order was given, we realized that within an hour the whole world would know about us. Imagine our feelings? How would a kneeling country react to this? God forbid, there will be failure ... We were not afraid for ourselves, for our skin. There was a feeling of great responsibility, because there would be no excuse later. How to look people in the eye - why didn’t you, didn’t you? And always afraid for people. God forbid…
Marsh passed without loss. People then realized that my severity had borne fruit — not a single unit of equipment failed during the march. The task was completed. But I was blamed for excessive rigidity and demandingness, they said that it could have been softer. The truth was on my side. Now I sleep peacefully, knowing that no mother, no wife curses me ... We brought everyone without a loss, the task was completed without clashes. Then I crossed myself and said: "Thank God, everyone is alive."
- Was there a danger on the route? How did the events unfold?
- Our passage was provided at a high level. So we never say that everything was done by me and General Rybkin. The decision was made at the top, and we only performed well. We practically "flew" Serbian towns. Police patrols and border guards provided the Green Corridor. We were led, intelligence worked for five points.
I assumed that something would happen. An hour or two or three has passed, and someone could wake up, NATO members could land the landing force. What do they cost? After all, we confronted the huge NATO colossus. Of course, we were preparing for surprises, right up to armed clashes. We had full ammunition. But the calculation was on surprise - they moved right on the autobahn on Sunday, although I know that the option of moving through the mountains was considered. We "flew" on the road. Then I learned that the American command had decided to disembark the Rangers, organize an ambush and detain us in any way. Allegedly, they had some kind of balloon on board the BTA aircraft with a capture group, injured someone, and this venture failed. Maybe they had enough sense not to bring the matter to armed clashes. But we were not very fun.
- Soldier and officers awarded for this march?
- You are the first journalist who asks about the awards of soldiers and officers. But this is a big problem. All interested in only one thing - who gave the order to march? And what is my business, who gave? I was given an order by my immediate superior, and I have no right to ask questions, who made the decision in the upper echelons. This is not my business, because we received an order, and went to carry it out.
I know that not everyone was awarded. The medal “To the participant of the Bosnia-Kosovo march” was instituted. Someone noted, but I know for sure that my two deputies did not receive it. Why dont know. Five years ago, I met in Ivanovo with my deputy in education, Yevgeny Morozov, and the battalion chief of staff, Vadim Poloyan, who were left without medals. Laughter, and only. They say to me: "Commander, how is that?". What can I do? He was ready to give his medal, but I had two ...
But I know for sure that these awards were received by those who did not participate in this march. Our entire award structure, those who sit in the headquarters, had to climb out of their way to find and reward all the marchers. Two years after the forced march, a soldier came to me from a village in the Ryazan region and said that in the village everyone was teasing him, saying that you were hanging noodles, that a participant in the march in Kosovo, but there were no medals. I had to call human resources again and demand ...
For me personally, the rewards are not important, I say this without drawing. The best reward is that I saved the fighters for whom I was responsible ... It was very difficult to get people out of such an alteration ... Experience shows that the losses - returnable and irrevocable - not all combat. A huge percentage of casualties for carelessness, due to carelessness, careless handling of weapons, hindsight. We avoided it in those conditions, we did not have a single injury.
- In the media, you have to read about the various "heroes" of the march on Kosovo ...
“For ten years in a row, journalists visited me in Ryazan, and then another well-known surname sounded in the media. It turned out that I unwittingly, as it were, deleted from history. Immediately the Russian mentality worked - they stopped coming to me and asking questions. There were a lot of ratings, new versions, guesses, but I am calm about this ...
- When entered Kosovo, with whom and who faced?
- In 1.00-1.30, the nights were spent in Pristina - the whole population was on the streets. They detained us a little. When they were outside the city, there was a terrible call from Moscow. The column was stopped. General Rybkin talked with someone for a long time on the phone, then we convinced him that we still had to go six kilometers and complete the task.
We had to take the airfield to 5.00 in the morning. By this time, the units of the Serbian Armed Forces should have left him and the English brigade would approach. We were ahead of her for an hour and a half. The scouts reported that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) unit was approaching. We managed to take positions and were ready for battle. They captured the runway, blocked it with armored personnel carriers, cleared the main approaches, blocked the highway to Macedonia, equipped positions around the perimeter. Trenches and caponiers for armored vehicles dug in the rocky ground for three days.
... After an hour and a half later, they settled in, from one of the posts they reported that English intelligence had approached. The British stopped at sight and just "stunned" when they saw our paratroopers. The English general arrived, they spoke Esperanto - broken English. "Who you are? What are you doing here? We should be here, ”he heard something like this. I had to answer that they were late, that here are the positions of the Russian landing force. The general was escorted to the headquarters of our general. There were no collisions ...
Serbian girls kiss Sergei Pavlov's battalion after 14 years after the legendary rush to Pristina. In Russia, many do not know their heroes by sight.
- Sergey Evgenievich, the question is essentially - what did the airborne battalion do in Kosovo?
- Yugoslavia was bombed; in NATO, the problem of Kosovo and Metohija, a disputed territory with interethnic and interreligious conflict, was solved by force. It’s not for me to give a political assessment, Milosevic is right when he sent troops there or not, and who began to cut whom. Politicians and historians will understand. But the West acted here, defiantly ignoring Russia. Chernomyrdin sat for days with Albright, but in the end Kosovo was divided into areas of responsibility without Russia.
Then it was decided to go to Kosovo on their own. Our battalion was a forward detachment - a military unit that captures the line, the site, the area and ensures the approach of the main forces. We had to ensure the landing of our main forces on the airfield. True, for a number of reasons, the troops did not land, and the Russian peacekeeping contingent arrived in another way. The main thing that we managed - Russia took part in the fate of the Kosovo Serbs. Initially, this was enough to prevent the genocide that the Albanians committed there. That was our mission. What happened next is well known, but not for us to judge. I, in any case, do not want to give political assessments. And as a person, I am very sad ... Now, 14 years later, we communicate with the Serbs, and they teach us a lesson in patriotism, love for our people, love for Russia.
- What happened in Kosovo in those days?
“We saw what the Kosovo Liberation Army was doing.” They burned and blew up Orthodox churches, slaughtered the Serbs. They did not go to the airfield - they knew that they would be repulsed. And they repeatedly tried to penetrate the dairy factory in Pristina, staged provocations. We took this territory under protection, thereby rescuing many Serbs from violence. Albanians showed offensive gestures, seized the Serbs, put a knife to the throat and tried to cut it before our eyes. And we had no right to open fire. The soldiers ran out, became a human shield, dragged, retreating people. All this was done under video cameras. Pure provocation ...
- Is it true that then several shots were enough to make the situation explode?
- Firstly, the fact that the British approached us was a deterrent. Our military leaders acted wisely - they launched them on the airfield, gave them a place to sleep. But we were constantly threatened.
We received intelligence information, from which directions to wait for the attack, disguised as they could, restricted all movement, warned us that Albanian snipers were operating, that they were assigned the task of taking prisoners into our captives, killing and slaughtering, which was personally warned by General Head Kvashnin, General Staff . But someone had the sense not to climb. We organized round-the-clock combat duty.
Soldiers - well done, no sloppiness or relaxation. People were really ready. We had experienced contractors, good officers.
... I will not forget the picture in the first days after the march. One 37-year-old contract soldier — an experienced warrior — lies on the parapet of a trench and listens. “What are you listening to?” - “Will arrive or not”. I answered him like in a movie: “Don't worry, they will come, of course.”
We were constantly provoked - cattle were allowed right to our positions, and we knew that it was not the shepherds who led the animals, but the scouts. They drove them away, for this there are different tricks. The main thing in that situation was not to break, not to provoke shooting. Next to our positions was a fuel depot and fuels and lubricants. Kosovars robbed him, took out fuel on tractors, constantly provoked the fighters.
When our main forces began to arrive by sea and by air, it became much easier, the tension subsided. We have a good effort. We met the troops, sent by sectors, and themselves served at the airfield.
14 years have passed, and I can not forget anything. The march is in front of my eyes - from the first second to the last. He was responsible for almost everything, and still can not forget this sense of responsibility. I had no such tension in my life. I remember everything - preparation, “races” on the autobahn, a slaughtered woman, tears of women and old people ... This is the most vivid impression in life.
I dream of march on Kosovo, and I will dream till the end of my days. I continue to command at night ... In principle, we did everything right - we completed the task, saved people and equipment ...
Abduction: political bagging holes
Combat Sergei Pavlov - a man of the old school, brought up, correct and laconic. He now teaches at the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School named after Army General VF Margelov. Cadets often ask him to tell about the march.
... Certainly, the swift airborne march to Pristina in June 1999 can rightfully be called a small victory for Russia. And it was not the success of diplomacy that ensured her, nor even willed fists on the table, but the simple battalion commander of the landing battalion and his subordinates.
True, as often happens in such cases, victory always has many fathers, and defeat is an orphan. With surprise, the Airborne Forces later learned about many of the “heroes” of this legendary march who either did not take part in it at all, or had, to put it mildly, a very, very indirect relationship. Some of them still sit in the State Duma, occupy posts in the executive authorities. Although in fairness it should be noted that the manner of sculpted fake “heroes” went from meticulous to “sensational” media, often not bothering to establish and convey the truth to people.
They say that on the occasion of the successful operation on the paratroopers' occupation of the airfield in Slatina, three gold medals were issued. Allegedly, they were awarded politicians and important bosses. "The paratroopers do not need gold, they assured me in the Union of Russian Paratroopers." “But all the men and officers who took part in the events of 14 years ago should be marked by the state.” But even ordinary commemorative medals got not all.
For veterans of those events, this is just a pleasant trifle, which may even be remembered only once a year, putting on awards at ceremonial events. The paratroopers are not made to bravel awards. But if the command ordered to arrive at the orders - you would have seen this iconostasis! But still…
But this is only one side of the coin. The other side is that the brave, in Russian, dashing assault landing was completely unsupported in the political plane. Yes, the Russian peacekeeping contingent had been serving for several years, in Bosnia and Kosovo, embodying an example of the fulfillment of the peacekeeping mission.
But the facts are stubborn things - the Kosovo Serbs have lost their homeland. The few tens of thousands that remained in the province still write letters to the Kremlin with a request to take them into Russian citizenship, because they turned away from them in Belgrade. In Kosovo, dozens of Orthodox monasteries were looted, hundreds of temples were destroyed and burned. The population for the most part left those places. And Russia with all its breadth and abundance of resources could not resist this shaft, could not become a barrier to injustice and outright evil. Although at the end of 1999, the command of the Russian brigade deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina informed Moscow about the favorable moment for the creation of Russian military bases in the Balkans. This appeal was never heard, and the story, as you know, does not tolerate the subjunctive mood ...
Today, the reality is that the mental gap between Serbia and Russia is widening. The older generation, especially those people who remember the times of the USSR and the SFRY, communicated and worked together with the peacekeepers from Russia, still feel an invisible connection with the Russian world, cherish it and are afraid to interrupt it. But the younger generation in Belgrade no longer knows the Russian language, far from the glorious and tragic pages of our common history. Young people, as in the megalopolises of Russia, are infected with the same “disease of consumerism”, in which the issues of spirit and identity do not matter at all.
Many Serbs, Serbia proper and the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina are already deployed to the West. In relations with Russia, the local elite sees first of all an economic interest, that is, only business. Other areas - cultural and spiritual, issues of a single faith, at best, are only declared and faded into the background. The Serbs are learning to survive without Russia, although the decision to lay the South Stream gas pipeline through the Serbian territories was greeted with great enthusiasm and the expectation of major changes for the better. As they are joking here, let "it is better for the Russians to turn off the gas, than the Germans will let them go."
With all the warmth and sincerity of the Serbian public figures and officials who met and communicated with the delegation of the Russian Airborne Forces, the President of the Republika Srpska, Miodrag Dodik, who regularly holds operational meetings with representatives of Gazprom, did not find time to talk with the participants of the legendary cast on Kosovo. Probably, all the priorities and preferences have changed ...
“... Russia was systematically squeezed out from the Balkans. For different reasons. The long-term efforts of the Russian peacekeepers are in vain. The Balkans shifted to well-fed Europe, flirting with the United States. In the run-up to the NATO aggression, the Serbs loved to repeat: “We are with Russia 200 millions, we are bros” ..., - this is the opinion of one of the officers of the paratroopers of the peacekeeping contingent. “We will never forget how the Serbs met us.” So in the second world the Russians met Europe liberated from the fascists. This is never forgotten, never ... Recently I read a comment on the Internet: “We then wiped the nose of NATO. They were really scared, but as always - they betrayed us ... They betrayed us. They betrayed the military, the Serbs ... And so we are not respected ... ". To realize that there is some truth in this is insulting and bitter. But this is not our fault. We did everything we could. And the power is still a shame, very much. Still..."
Uglevik - Banja Luka - Moscow
A leaflet on the Serbian and Albanian population of KOSOVO, prepared and distributed by unknown persons in April-May 1999.: LOCATED living or embalmed BILLY CLINTON is a very dangerous criminal, repeat offender, sexually concerned, although, in fact, quite helpless in sex respect, a man who pratrahsya oath to the Albanians to free Kosovo. Reward for capture: 45 million dollars in your pocket (or the Black Falcon F-117 plane in good condition and without a pilot). Please inform us of the available information at the following address: Kosovo Liberation Army, NATO, Brussels, Great Albania. Note: the leaflet is written in Serbo-Croatian, but using transcription that reproduces Albanian pronunciation
Residents of the capital of the Republic of Serbian Banja Luka meet the delegation of Russian paratroopers with a banner
Reserve Colonel Sergei Pavlov - the commander of the battalion who marched in Kosovo and occupied the Slatina airfield. Nowadays - associate professor of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School named after General of the Army V.F. Margelov
Stock Colonel Hero of Russia Alexander Margelov talks to a Russian volunteer who fought in the Balkans, Sergey Sukharev
Beret, vest and the Order of Margelov transferred to the legendary General Ratko Mladic, located in the dungeons in The Hague, his son Darko
Zoltan Dani, commander of the Yugoslav air defense unit, tells how in March 1999 shot down the stealth aircraft F-117A "Stealth"
Russian paratroopers lay a wreath at the memorial at the site of the Jasenovac concentration camp, where during the Second World War, the Croatian ustashi tortured about 700 thousand people
Delegation of the Union of Russian Paratroopers at the conference dedicated to the 14 anniversary of the march on Pristina in Uglevik, Republika Srpska
Information