Serbian war 1995. Slovenia in the struggle for independence

inter-ethnic war in Yugoslavia and NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The cause of the war was the destruction of the Yugoslav statehood (by mid-1992 federal authorities authorities lost control over the situation) caused by the conflict between the federal republics and various ethnic groups, as well as attempts by the political "top" to revise the existing borders between the republics.

War in Croatia (1991-1995). In February 1991, the Croatian Sabor adopted a resolution on “disengagement” from the SFRY, and the Serbian National Council of the Serbian Krajina (an autonomous Serbian region within Croatia) adopted a resolution on “disengagement” from Croatia and remaining within the SFRY. The mutual incitement of passions, the persecution of the Serbian Orthodox Church caused the first wave of refugees - 40 thousand Serbs were forced to leave their homes. In July, a general mobilization was announced in Croatia, and by the end of the year, the number of Croatian armed formations reached 110 thousand people. Ethnic cleansing began in Western Slavonia. Serbs were completely expelled from 10 cities and 183 villages, and partially from 87 villages.

On the part of the Serbs, the formation of a system of territorial defense and the armed forces of Krajina began, a significant part of which were volunteers from Serbia. Units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) entered the territory of Croatia and by August 1991 drove out volunteer Croatian units from the territory of all Serbian regions. But after the signing of a truce in Geneva, the JNA stopped helping the Krajina Serbs, and a new offensive by the Croats forced them to retreat. From spring 1991 to spring 1995. Krajina was partially taken under the protection of the Blue Helmets, but the demand of the UN Security Council for the withdrawal of Croatian troops from the zones controlled by peacekeepers was not fulfilled. The Croats continued to take active military actions with the use of tanks, artillery, rocket launchers. As a result of the war in 1991-1994. 30 thousand people died, up to 500 thousand people became refugees, direct losses amounted to more than 30 billion dollars. In May-August 1995, the Croatian army carried out a well-prepared operation to return Krajina to Croatia. Several tens of thousands of people died during the hostilities. 250 thousand Serbs were forced to leave the republic. In total for 1991-1995. more than 350 thousand Serbs left Croatia.

War in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991-1995). On October 14, 1991, in the absence of Serb deputies, the Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaimed the independence of the republic. On January 9, 1992, the Assembly of the Serbian People proclaimed the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the SFRY. In April 1992, a "Muslim putsch" took place - the seizure of police buildings and the most important objects. Muslim armed formations were opposed by the Serbian Volunteer Guard and volunteer detachments. The Yugoslav army withdrew its units, and then was blocked by the Muslims in the barracks. For 44 days of the war, 1320 people died, the number of refugees amounted to 350 thousand people.

The United States and a number of other states have accused Serbia of fomenting the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the OSCE ultimatum, the Yugoslav troops were withdrawn from the territory of the republic. But the situation in the republic has not stabilized. A war broke out between Croats and Muslims with the participation of the Croatian army. The leadership of Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into independent ethnic groups.

On March 18, 1994, with the mediation of the United States, a Muslim-Croat federation and a well-armed joint army were created, which began offensive operations with the support of NATO air forces, bombing Serbian positions(with the approval of the UN Secretary-General). The contradictions between the Serbian leaders and the Yugoslav leadership, as well as the blockade of heavy weapons by the "blue helmets" of the Serbs, put them in a difficult situation. In August-September 1995, NATO air strikes, which destroyed Serbian military installations, communications centers and air defense systems, prepared a new offensive for the Muslim-Croatian army. On October 12, the Serbs were forced to sign a ceasefire agreement.

By Resolution 1031 of December 15, 1995, the UN Security Council instructed NATO to form a peacekeeping force to end the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was the first ever NATO-led ground operation outside its area of responsibility. The role of the UN was reduced to the approval of this operation. The composition of the peacekeeping multinational force included 57,300 people, 475 tanks, 1,654 armored vehicles, 1,367 guns, multiple rocket launchers and mortars, 200 combat helicopters, 139 combat aircraft, 35 ships (with 52 carrier-based aircraft) and other weapons. It is believed that by the beginning of 2000 the goals of the peacekeeping operation were basically achieved - a ceasefire had come. But the full agreement of the conflicting parties did not take place. The problem of refugees remained unresolved.

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed more than 200,000 lives, of which more than 180,000 were civilians. Germany alone spent 320,000 refugees (mostly Muslims) on maintenance from 1991 to 1998. about 16 billion marks.

War in Kosovo and Metohija (1998-1999). Since the second half of the 1990s, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began to operate in Kosovo. In 1991-1998 there were 543 clashes between Albanian militants and Serbian police, 75% of which took place within five months last year. To stop the wave of violence, Belgrade sent police units numbering 15 thousand people and about the same number of military personnel, 140 tanks and 150 armored vehicles to Kosovo and Metohija. In July-August 1998, the Serbian army managed to destroy the main strongholds of the KLA, which controlled up to 40% of the region's territory. This predetermined the intervention of NATO member states, who demanded the cessation of the actions of Serbian forces under the threat of bombing Belgrade. Serbian troops were withdrawn from the province and KLA militants re-occupied a significant part of Kosovo and Metohija. The forcible expulsion of the Serbs from the region began.

In March 1999, in violation of the UN Charter, NATO launched a "humanitarian intervention" against Yugoslavia. In operation " Allied Force”was used at the first stage of 460 combat aircraft, by the end of the operation the figure had increased by more than 2.5 times. The strength of the NATO ground grouping was increased to 10 thousand people with heavy armored vehicles and tactical missiles in service. Within a month from the beginning of the operation, the NATO naval grouping was increased to 50 ships equipped with sea-based cruise missiles and 100 carrier-based aircraft, and then increased several times more (for carrier-based aviation - 4 times). In total, 927 aircraft and 55 ships (4 aircraft carriers) participated in the NATO operation. NATO troops were served by a powerful group of space assets.

By the beginning of the NATO aggression, the Yugoslav ground forces numbered 90 thousand people and about 16 thousand people of the police and security forces. The Yugoslav army had up to 200 combat aircraft, about 150 air defense systems with limited combat capabilities.

NATO used 1,200-1,500 high-precision sea and air-based cruise missiles to attack 900 targets in the Yugoslav economy. During the first stage of the operation, these funds destroyed the oil industry of Yugoslavia, 50% of the ammunition industry, 40% of the tank and automobile industries, 40% of oil storage facilities, 100% of strategic bridges across the Danube. From 600 to 800 sorties per day were carried out. In total, 38,000 sorties were made during the operation, about 1,000 air-launched cruise missiles were used, more than 20,000 bombs and guided missiles were dropped. 37,000 uranium projectiles were also used, as a result of which 23 tons of depleted uranium-238 were sprayed over Yugoslavia.

An important component of the aggression was the information war, including a powerful impact on Information Systems Yugoslavia in order to destroy information sources and undermine the combat control system and information isolation not only of the troops, but also of the population. The destruction of television and radio centers cleared information space for broadcasting station "Voice of America".

According to NATO, the bloc lost 5 aircraft, 16 unmanned aerial vehicles and 2 helicopters in the operation. According to the Yugoslav side, 61 NATO aircraft, 238 cruise missiles, 30 unmanned aerial vehicles and 7 helicopters (independent sources give the numbers 11, 30, 3 and 3 respectively).

More than 2,000 people died as a result of NATO bombing civilians, more than 7,000 people were injured, 82 bridges were destroyed and damaged, 422 assignments of educational institutions, 48 medical facilities, the most important objects life support and infrastructure, more than 750 thousand inhabitants of Yugoslavia became refugees, without necessary conditions life left 2.5 million people. The total material damage from NATO aggression amounted to over $100 billion.

On June 10, 1999, the NATO Secretary General suspended operations against Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav leadership agreed to withdraw military and police forces from Kosovo and Metohija. june 11 strength rapid response NATO entered the territory of the region. By April 2000, 41,000 KFOR troops were stationed in Kosovo and Metohija. But this did not stop inter-ethnic violence. In the year following the cessation of NATO aggression, more than 1,000 people were killed in the region, more than 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins and 150,000 representatives of other ethnic groups population, burned or damaged about 100 churches and monasteries.

In 2002, the NATO Prague Summit was held, which legalized any operations of the alliance outside the territories of its member countries "wherever it is required." The summit documents did not mention the need to authorize the UN Security Council to use force.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Covering this country after the death of its leader I. B. Tito. For a long time, from 1945 to 1980, Tito and the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKY) headed by him exercised tight control over any kind of nationalism in this country. Within the framework of a single state, it was possible to avoid national and religious conflicts, despite the fact that the population of each of the republics of multi-confessional Yugoslavia had its own national identity and its own national leaders.

After the death of Tito in 1980, the disintegration of the party began, followed by the disintegration of the multinational state, which dragged on for many years. Independent states appeared on the map of Europe: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Federation of Serbia and Montenegro), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia. And after the referendum on independence in Montenegro, the last remnants of the former federation went down in history. Serbia and Montenegro also became independent states.

It cannot be assumed that the clash of national interests of the former Yugoslav peoples was bound to result in a bloody war. It could have been avoided if the political leadership national republics so zealously did not speculate on national question. On the other hand, so many insults and mutual claims have accumulated between the individual components of the Yugoslav Federation that politicians needed a great deal of prudence in order not to take advantage of them. However, prudence was not shown, and a civil war broke out in the country.

At the very beginning of the Yugoslav conflict, the political leadership of Serbia stated that in the event of the collapse of Yugoslavia, the borders of the multinational republics should be revised in such a way that the entire Serbian population lived on the territory of "great Serbia". In 1990, almost a third of Croatia was inhabited by Serbs, in addition, more than a million Serbs lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia opposed this, in favor of maintaining the former borders, but at the same time she herself wanted to control those areas of Bosnia that were predominantly populated by Croats. The ethno-geographical distribution of Croats and Serbs in Bosnia did not allow drawing reasonable and agreed boundaries between them, which inevitably led to conflict.

Serbian President S. Milosevic advocated the unification of all Serbs within the boundaries of one state. It should be noted that in almost all the former Yugoslav republics, the key idea of this period was the creation of a mono-ethnic state.

Milosevic, who initially controlled Serbian leaders in Bosnia, could well have prevented the bloodshed, but he did not. In order to finance the war, his regime essentially robbed the population of Serbia by issuing money, which resulted in high inflation. In December 1993, a banknote of 500 billion dinars could buy a pack of cigarettes in the morning, and a box of matches in the evening due to inflation. The average salary at the same time was $ 3 per month.

1987 - Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milosevic was elected leader of the SKJ.
1990-1991 - disintegration of the SKU.
1991 - declaration of independence of Slovenia and Croatia, the beginning of the war in Croatia.
1992 - declaration of independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The beginning of a confrontation between the population of the republic, which consisted of Bosnian Muslims (44%), Croat Catholics (17%), Orthodox Serbs (33%).
1992-1995 - war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1994 - the beginning of NATO air raids on the positions of the Bosnian Serbs.
August - September 1995 - NATO carried out a massive air raid on military installations and communications of the Bosnian Serbs, depriving them of the possibility of resistance.
November 1995 - The Dayton Accords (USA) are signed, according to which Bosnia (consisting of 51% Muslims and 49% Orthodox Christians) was divided into a Bosnian-Muslim and a Bosnian-Serbian republic, but within its former borders. United Bosnia was to be represented by some common institutions two republics. A 35,000-strong NATO force, with US participation, was required to enforce the agreements on Bosnia. Persons suspected of crimes were subject to arrest (this primarily concerned the leaders of the Bosnian Serbs, Slobodan Milosevic and Radko Mladic).
1997 - S. Milosevic was elected president at a meeting of the Union Parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
1998 - the beginning of the radicalization of the separatist movement in Kosovo.
March 1998 - The UN Security Council adopts a resolution on an arms embargo against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
June 1998 - Kosovo Albanians refuse dialogue with Serbia (they will boycott meetings 12 more times).
August 1998 - NATO approved three options for resolving the Kosovo crisis.
March 1999 - the beginning of the bombing of targets in Serbia and Montenegro (in violation of the Charter of Paris, of which Yugoslavia was a member, and all UN principles). Belgrade announces breakup diplomatic relations with the USA, Great Britain, Germany and France.
April 1999 - Russian statement, in which the bombing of Yugoslavia was regarded as NATO aggression against a sovereign state.
May 1999 - The hearing begins at the Hague Tribunal on the suit of Belgrade against 10 NATO countries participating in the bombing of Yugoslavia. (The lawsuit was later dismissed.)
June 1999 - The withdrawal of military and police from Kosovo began. NATO Secretary General X. Solana gives the order to suspend the bombing. material from the site

The Yugoslav conflict has become the greatest tragedy of mankind in the entire post-war period. The number of those killed was estimated at tens of thousands, ethnic cleansing (forced expulsion from a certain territory of persons of another ethnic background) gave birth to 2 million refugees. War crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by all parties to the conflict. During the hostilities, 5 thousand tons of bombs were dropped on the territory of Yugoslavia, 1500 "cruise missiles" were fired. Neither the diplomatic efforts of the West, nor the economic sanctions yielded their results - the war lasted for several years. Ignoring the endless ceasefire negotiations and agreements, Christians (Catholics and Orthodox) and Muslims continued to kill each other.

The collapse of Yugoslavia. Causes of the Serbo-Croatian conflict

Naturally, the enmity between the Serbs did not arise by itself; Serbs in the territory of modern Croatia have lived compactly since the beginning of the 14th century. The sharp increase in the number of Serbs in these territories was caused by the settlement of Serb refugees from the territories occupied by Ottoman Empire and the formation of the Military Frontier by the Austrian Habsburgs. After the abolition of the "military border" and the inclusion of "krajina" in the Croatian and Hungarian lands, interethnic strife began to grow, especially between Serbs and Croats, and soon the chauvinist movement "Frankivists" (according to their founder Frank) appeared. Since 1918, Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, although during the Second World War there was an Independent State of Croatia, which collaborated with Nazi Germany and carried out the genocide of the Serbs. The Serbian issue was resolved according to the principle: "destroy a third of the Serbs, expel a third, rebaptize a third." All this led to the death of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, absolute majority who died not at the hands of foreign invaders, but from the Croatian-Muslim troops of the NDH (primarily in the camps of the NDH in the largest of which - Jasenovets - several hundred thousand Serbs who gathered by the Ustasha in all the villages and cities of the NDH died) At the same time, created in In May 1941, detachments of Serbian Chetnik nationalists in a number of cases acted on the side of the Third Reich and were engaged in ethnic cleansing of Balkan Muslims and Croats.

Against the backdrop of exacerbation interethnic relations, the Croatian Constitution was amended, according to which "Croatia is the state of the Croatian people." In response to this, the Serbs living within the administrative boundaries of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, fearing a repetition of the 1941-1945 genocide, plan to create a Serbian Autonomous Region - SAO (Srpska Autonomous Region). It was created under the leadership of Milan Babich - SDS Krajina. In April 1991, the Krajina Serbs decided to secede from Croatia and join the Republika Srpska, which was then confirmed at a referendum held in Krajina (August 19). Serbian National Council of the Serbian Krajina - creates a resolution on "disarmament" with Croatia and preservation as part of the SFRY. On September 30, this autonomy is proclaimed, and on December 21 its status is approved SAO (Serbian Autonomous Region) - Krajina with the center in Knin. 4 January SAO Krajina creates own management internal affairs, while the Croatian authorities, all police officers who obey her, dismisses.

The mutual incitement of passions, the persecution of the Serbian Orthodox Church caused the first wave of refugees - 40 thousand Serbs were forced to leave their homes. In July, a general mobilization was announced in Croatia, and by the end of the year, the number of Croatian armed formations reached 110 thousand people. Ethnic cleansing began in Western Slavonia. Serbs were completely expelled from 10 cities and 183 villages, and partially from 87 villages.

In Croatia, there was practically a war between Serbs and Croats, whose actual beginning came in the battles for Borovo Selo. This Serbian village was the target of an attack by Croatian forces from Vukovar. The situation for the local Serbs was difficult and they could not wait for help from the JNA. Nevertheless, the local Serbian leadership, primarily the head of the TO, Vukashin Shoshkovchanin, himself turned to a number of opposition parties SNO and SRS with a request to send volunteers, which for those times was a revolutionary step. For the then society, the consciousness of some kind of volunteers fighting outside the ranks of the JNA and the police with the Croatian forces under the Serbian national banner turned out to be a shock, but this was precisely what served as one of the most important factors in the rise of the Serbian, national movement. The authorities in Belgrade hastened to abandon the volunteers, and the Minister of the Interior of Serbia called them adventurers, but in fact there was support from the authorities, or rather from the special services. Thus, the volunteer detachment "Stara Srbia", assembled in Nis under the command of Branislav Vakic, was provided with uniforms, food and transport by the local mayor Mile Ilic, one of the leading people at that time. SPS (Socialist Party of Serbia), created by Slobodan Milosevic from the republican organization of the SKJ (Union of Communists of Yugoslavia) in Serbia, and naturally, the former ruling party. These and other groups of volunteers who gathered in Borovoye Selo, numbering about a hundred people, as well as local Serbian fighters, received weapons through the TO (territorial defense) network, which was organizationally part of the JNA and was under the complete control of Belgrade, who even managed to partially take out stockpiles of TO weapons from purely Croatian territories.

All this, however, did not mean the complete subordination of the volunteers to the authorities of Serbia, but only that the latter, having provided them with support, relieved itself of responsibility for their actions and, in fact, expected a further outcome.

The Croatian forces then, thanks to their own commanders, were practically ambushed by the Serbs, whom they clearly underestimated. At the same time, the Croatian command waited all April, when Serbian Defense Borovo village attention will weaken, and indeed some volunteers have already begun to return home. A scenario was prepared for the establishment of Croatian power - the occupation of the village, the murders and arrests of the Serbs most irreconcilable towards the Croatian authorities. On May 2, the offensive began. It was unsuccessful for the Croats, who immediately came under fire from the Serbs.

At this time, the war begins in the "Knin Krajina" (as the Serbs of the region of Lika, Kordun, Bania and Dalmatia, which were under Serbian rule, then began to be called) with battles on June 26-27 for the town of Glina. This military operation was also unsuccessful for the Croats.

The course of hostilities

In June-July 1991, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) was involved in a short military action against Slovenia, which ended in failure. After that, she was involved in hostilities against the militia and police of the self-proclaimed Croatian state. A large-scale war began in August. The JNA had an overwhelming advantage in armored vehicles, artillery, and an absolute advantage in aviation, but it acted generally ineffectively, since it was created to repel external aggression, and not for military operations within the country. Most famous events of this period are the siege of Dubrovnik and the siege of Vukovar. In December, at the height of the war, the independent Republic of Serbian Krajina was proclaimed. The battle for Vukovar On August 20, 1991, Croatian territorial defense detachments blocked two garrisons of the Yugoslav army in the city. On September 3, the Yugoslav People's Army launched an operation to liberate the blockaded garrisons, which escalated into a siege of the city and protracted battles. The operation was carried out by units of the Yugoslav People's Army with the support of Serbian paramilitary volunteer units (for example, the Serbian Volunteer Guard under the command of Zeljko Razhnatovic "Arkan") and lasted from September 3 to November 18, 1991, including about a month, from mid-October to mid-November, the city was completely surrounded. The city was defended by part of the Croatian national guard and Croatian volunteers. Separate armed conflicts the city has been flaring up periodically since May 1991, even before the declaration of independence by Croatia. The regular siege of Vukovar began on 3 September. Despite the multiple advantage of the attackers in manpower and equipment, the defenders of Vukovar successfully resisted for almost three months. The city fell on November 18, 1991, and as a result of street fighting, bombing and rocket attacks, it was almost completely destroyed.

Losses during the battle for the city, according to official Croatian data, amounted to 879 killed and 770 wounded (data from the Croatian Ministry of Defense, published in 2006). The death toll on the JNA side is not exactly established, according to unofficial data from the Belgrade military observer Miroslav Lazanski, the death toll was 1,103 killed and 2,500 wounded.

After the end of the fighting for the city, a peace agreement was signed, leaving Vukovar and part of eastern Slavonia for the Serbs. In January 1992, another ceasefire agreement was concluded between the warring parties (the 15th in a row), which finally completed the main fighting. In March, UN peacekeepers were introduced into the country (. As a result of the events of 1991, Croatia defended its independence, but lost territories inhabited by Serbs. In the next three years, the country intensively strengthened its regular army, participated in civil war in neighboring Bosnia and carried out a number of small armed actions against Serbian Krajina.

In May 1995, the Croatian armed forces took control of western Slavonia during Operation Lightning, which was accompanied by a sharp escalation of hostilities and Serbian rocket attacks on Zagreb. In August, the Croatian army launched Operation Storm and broke through the defenses of the Krajina Serbs in a matter of days. Reasons: The reason for the operation was the breakdown of negotiations known as "Z-4" on the inclusion of the Republic of Serbian Krajina into Croatia as a cultural autonomy. According to the Serbs, the provisions of the proposed treaty did not guarantee the Serb population protection from harassment based on ethnicity. Having failed to integrate the territory of the RSK politically, Croatia decided to do it militarily. In the battles, the Croats involved in the operation about 200 thousand soldiers and officers. A Croatian website reports 190,000 soldiers involved in the operation. The military observer Ionov writes that the four Croatian corps that took part in the operation numbered 100,000 soldiers and officers. But these figures do not include the Bielovar and Osijek corps. Overall control of the operation was in Zagreb. The field headquarters, headed by Major General Marjan Marekovich, was located in the town of Ogulin, southeast of Karlovac. Operation progress: The progress of the operation.

At 3 am on August 4, the Croats officially notified the UN of the start of the operation. The operation itself began at 5:00. Croatian artillery and aviation dealt a massive blow to the troops, command posts and communications of the Serbs. Then the attack began along almost the entire front line. At the beginning of the operation, Croatian troops captured the posts of UN peacekeepers, killed and wounded several peacekeepers from Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Nepal. The tactics of the Croatian offensive was to break through the defense guards units, who, without getting involved in battles, were supposed to develop the offensive, and the so-called. Household regiments. By the middle of the day, the Serbian defenses had been broken through in many places. At 4 p.m., the order to evacuate was given. civilian population from Knin, Obrovac and Benkovac. Order for the evacuation of the Serbian population. By the evening of August 4, the Serb 7th Corps was under threat of encirclement, and the Croatian special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a battalion of the 9th Guards Brigade defeated the 9th motorized brigade of the 15th Lich Corps and captured the key Mali Alan pass. From here, an offensive was launched on Grachats. The 7th Corps retreated to Knin. At 19.00, 2 NATO aircraft from the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt attacked Serbian missile positions near Knin. Two more planes from the Italian air base bombed the Serbian air base in Udbina. At 23.20, the headquarters of the armed forces of the Serbian Krajina was evacuated to the city of Srb, 35 kilometers from Knin. On the morning of August 5, Croatian troops occupied Knin and Gracac.

On the night of August 5, the forces of the 5th Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina entered the battle. The 502nd mountain brigade hit the rear of the 15th Serb Lich Corps northwest of Bihac. At 8.00, having overcome the weak resistance of the Serbs, the 502nd brigade entered the Plitvice Lakes region. By 11 o'clock, a detachment from the 1st Guards Brigade of the Croatian Army, led by General Marjan Marekovich, came out to join them. Thus, the territory of the Serbian Krajina was cut into two parts. The 501st Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina captured the radar on Mount Plesevica and approached Korenica. The advance of Croatian troops to Udbina forced the Serbs to redeploy the remnants of aviation to the Banja Luka airfield. The Croat offensive in the Medak area made it possible to break the Serb defenses in this area and the 15th corps was divided into three parts: the 50th brigade in Vrkhovina, the remnants of the 18th brigade in Bunich and the 103rd light infantry brigade in the Donji Lapac-Korenica area. In the north, the 39th Bansky Corps of the Serbs defended Glina and Kostajnitsa, however, under the pressure of enemy troops, it began to retreat to the south.

At this time, the 505th brigade of the 5th corps of the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina struck in the rear of the corps in the direction of Zhirovac. During the offensive, the commander of the 505th brigade, Colonel Izet Nanich, was killed. The commander of the 39th corps, General Torbuk, used his last reserves to repel the attack of the 505th brigade. The corps continued to retreat. The 21st Kordun Corps continued to defend the city of Slun and repelled attacks south of Karlovac. On the night of August 5-6, parts of the Split Corps of the Croatian army entered Benkovac and Obrovac. On August 6, the defense of the units of the 7th and 15th corps fell apart and after the connection of the Croats and Bosnians near Korenica, the last pockets of Serb resistance in this sector were crushed. Under attacks from the south and west, the 21st Corps fought back towards Karlovac. On the evening of August 6, the Croats occupied Glina, jeopardizing the encirclement of the 21st Corps. Serbian General Mile Novakovic, who was in charge of the entire Task Force "Spider" in the north, requested a truce from the Croatian side in order to carry out the evacuation of soldiers of the 21st and 39th Corps and refugees. The truce lasted only one night.

On August 7, units of the 21st and 39th Corps retreated east towards Bosnia in order to avoid encirclement. In the afternoon, the 505th and 511th brigades of the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina connected with the 2nd guards brigade of the Croatian army advancing from Petrini. Two Serbian infantry brigades of the 21st Corps and the remnants of the Corps of Special Units (about 6,000 people) were surrounded in the city of Topusko. The rearguard of the 39th Corps was pushed into Bosnia. After that, parts of the 5th Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina entered Western Bosnia, occupied its capital Velika Kladusa almost without resistance, expelling Fikret Abdić and thirty thousand of his supporters, who fled to Croatia. At 18:00 on August 7, Croatian Defense Minister Gojko Susak announced the end of Operation Oluya. During the evening of August 7, Croatian troops took control of the last strip of territory along the border with Bosnia - Srb and Donji Lapac. In the north, in the Topusko region, Colonel Chedomir Bulat signed the surrender of the remnants of the 21st Corps. Losses: Croatians - According to the Croatian side, 174 soldiers were killed and 1,430 were wounded. Serbs - According to the organization of Krajina Serbs in exile "Veritas", the number of dead and missing civilians in August 1995 (that is, during the operation and immediately after it) is 1042 people, 726 military personnel of the armed forces and 12 policemen. The number of wounded is approximately 2,500 to 3,000.

Results of the war. Dayton Agreement

The fall of Serbian Krajina caused a mass exodus of Serbs. Having achieved success on their territory, the Croatian troops entered Bosnia and, together with the Muslims, launched an offensive against the Bosnian Serbs. NATO intervention led to a ceasefire in October, and on December 14, 1995, the Dayton Accords were signed, ending hostilities in the former Yugoslavia.

The Dayton Agreement is an agreement on a ceasefire, the separation of the warring parties and the separation of territories, which put an end to the civil war in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995. Agreed in November 1995 at the US military base in Dayton (Ohio), signed on December 14, 1995 in Paris by Bosnian leader Alija Izetbegovic, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.

US initiative. The peace talks took place with the active participation of the United States, which, according to many, took an anti-Serb position. [Source not specified 28 days The United States proposed the creation of a Bosnian-Croat federation. The treaty to end the Croatian-Bosnian conflict and establish the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was signed in Washington and Vienna in March 1994 by Prime Minister of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Haris Silajdzic, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic and President of Herzeg-Bosna Kresimir Zubak. The Bosnian Serbs refused to join this treaty. Immediately before the signing of the Dayton Agreement, in August-September 1995, NATO aircraft conducted an air operation "Deliberate Force" against the Bosnian Serbs, which played a role in stopping the Serbian offensive and some change military situation in favor of the Bosnian-Croat forces. The Dayton talks were held with the participation of the guarantor countries: the USA, Russia, Germany, Great Britain and France.

The essence of the agreement: The agreement consisted of a general part and eleven annexes. A contingent of NATO troops was introduced into the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina - 60,000 soldiers, half of which were Americans. It was envisaged that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina should consist of two parts - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska. Sarajevo remained the capital. A resident of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina could be a citizen of both the united republic and one of the two entities. Serbs received 49% of the territory, Bosnians and Croats - 51%. Gorazde retreated to the Bosnians, it was connected to Sarajevo by a corridor controlled by international forces. Sarajevo and the Serbian regions adjacent to it passed into the Bosnian part. The exact course of the border within the Brcko district was to be determined by the Arbitration Commission. The agreement prohibited those accused by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia from holding public office on the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, Dario Kordic and other leaders of the Bosnian Serbs and Croats were removed from power.

The functions of the head of state were transferred to the Presidium, consisting of three people- one from each nation. Legislature was to belong to the Parliamentary Assembly, consisting of the House of Nations and the House of Representatives. One third of the deputies are elected from the Republika Srpska, two thirds from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time, a “veto of the people” was introduced: if the majority of deputies elected from one of the three peoples voted against a particular proposal, it was considered rejected, despite the position of the other two peoples. In general, powers central authorities, by convention, were very limited. Real power was transferred to the bodies of the Federation and the Republika Srpska. The entire system was to operate under the supervision of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

More than 26 thousand people died during the war. The number of refugees from both sides was great - hundreds of thousands of people. Almost the entire Croatian population was expelled from the territory of the Republic of Serbian Krajina in 1991-1995 - about 160 thousand people. The Red Cross of Yugoslavia in 1991 counted 250,000 Serb refugees from Croatia. Croatian troops in 1995 carried out ethnic cleansing in Western Slavonia and Knin Krajina, as a result, another 230-250 thousand Serbs left Krajina.

WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA 1991-1995, 1998-1999 – interethnic war in Yugoslavia and NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The reason for the war was the destruction of Yugoslav statehood (by mid-1992, the federal authorities had lost control of the situation), caused by the conflict between the federal republics and various ethnic groups, as well as attempts by the political "top" to revise the existing borders between the republics.
To understand the history of the conflict, you should first read about the collapse of Yugoslavia itself:

Brief overview of the wars in Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1999:

War in Croatia (1991-1995).
In February 1991, the Sabor of Croatia adopted a decision on "disarmament" with the SFRY, and the Serbian National Council of the Serbian Krajina (an autonomous Serbian region within Croatia) - a resolution on "disarmament" with Croatia and keeping it within the SFRY. The mutual incitement of passions, the persecution of the Serbian Orthodox Church caused the first wave of refugees - 40 thousand Serbs were forced to leave their homes. In July, a general mobilization was announced in Croatia, and by the end of the year, the number of Croatian armed formations reached 110 thousand people. Ethnic cleansing began in Western Slavonia. Serbs were completely expelled from 10 cities and 183 villages, and partially from 87 villages.

War in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991-1995).
On October 14, 1991, in the absence of Serb deputies, the Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaimed the independence of the republic. On January 9, 1992, the Assembly of the Serbian People proclaimed the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the SFRY. In April 1992, a "Muslim putsch" took place - the seizure of police buildings and the most important objects. Muslim armed formations were opposed by the Serbian Volunteer Guard and volunteer detachments. The Yugoslav army withdrew its units, and then was blocked by the Muslims in the barracks. For 44 days of the war, 1320 people died, the number of refugees amounted to 350 thousand people.

On March 18, 1994, with the mediation of the United States, a Muslim-Croat federation and a well-armed joint army were created, which launched offensive operations with the support of NATO air forces, bombing Serbian positions (with the authorization of the UN Secretary General). The contradictions between the Serbian leaders and the Yugoslav leadership, as well as the blockade of heavy weapons by the "blue helmets" of the Serbs, put them in a difficult situation. In August-September 1995, NATO air strikes, which destroyed Serbian military installations, communications centers and air defense systems, prepared a new offensive for the Muslim-Croatian army. On October 12, the Serbs were forced to sign a ceasefire agreement.

War in Kosovo and Metohija (1998-1999).
Since the second half of the 1990s, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began to operate in Kosovo. In 1991-1998 There were 543 clashes between Albanian militants and Serbian police, 75% of which took place in five months of last year. To stop the wave of violence, Belgrade sent police units numbering 15 thousand people and about the same number of military personnel, 140 tanks and 150 armored vehicles to Kosovo and Metohija. In July-August 1998, the Serbian army managed to destroy the main strongholds of the KLA, which controlled up to 40% of the region's territory. This predetermined the intervention of NATO member states, who demanded the cessation of the actions of Serbian forces under the threat of bombing Belgrade. Serbian troops were withdrawn from the province and KLA militants re-occupied a significant part of Kosovo and Metohija. The forcible expulsion of the Serbs from the region began.

Operation Allied Force

In March 1999, in violation of the UN Charter, NATO launched a "humanitarian intervention" against Yugoslavia. In Operation Allied Force, 460 combat aircraft were used at the first stage; by the end of the operation, the figure had increased by more than 2.5 times. The strength of the NATO ground grouping was increased to 10 thousand people with heavy armored vehicles and tactical missiles in service. Within a month from the beginning of the operation, the NATO naval grouping was increased to 50 ships equipped with sea-based cruise missiles and 100 carrier-based aircraft, and then increased several times more (for carrier-based aviation - 4 times). In total, 927 aircraft and 55 ships (4 aircraft carriers) participated in the NATO operation. NATO troops were served by a powerful group of space assets.

An important component of the aggression was the information war, including a powerful impact on the information systems of Yugoslavia in order to destroy information sources and undermine the combat command and control system and information isolation not only of the troops, but also of the population. The destruction of television and radio centers cleared the information space for the broadcasting of the Voice of America station.

According to NATO, the bloc lost 5 aircraft, 16 unmanned aerial vehicles and 2 helicopters in the operation. According to the Yugoslav side, 61 NATO aircraft, 238 cruise missiles, 30 unmanned aerial vehicles and 7 helicopters were shot down (independent sources give the numbers 11, 30, 3 and 3 respectively).

The Yugoslav side in the first days of the war lost a significant part of its aviation and air defense systems (70% of mobile air defense systems). The forces and means of air defense were preserved due to the fact that Yugoslavia refused to conduct an air defensive operation.
As a result of NATO bombing, more than 2,000 civilians were killed, more than 7,000 people were injured, 82 bridges, 422 tasks of educational institutions, 48 medical facilities, the most important life support facilities and infrastructure were destroyed and damaged, more than 750 thousand residents of Yugoslavia became refugees, left without the necessary living conditions 2.5 million people. The total material damage from NATO aggression amounted to over $100 billion.

On June 10, 1999, the NATO Secretary General suspended operations against Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav leadership agreed to withdraw military and police forces from Kosovo and Metohija. On June 11, the NATO Rapid Response Force entered the territory of the region. By April 2000, 41,000 KFOR troops were stationed in Kosovo and Metohija. But this did not stop inter-ethnic violence. In the year after the end of NATO aggression, more than 1,000 people were killed in the region, more than 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins and 150,000 representatives of other ethnic groups were expelled, about 100 churches and monasteries were burned or damaged.

During the NATO war against Serbia on April 12, 1999, during the bombing of the railway bridge in the Grdelica area (Grdelica), a NATO F-15E aircraft destroyed the Serbian passenger train Belgrade - Skopje.
This incident received prominent coverage in the NATO information war against Serbia.
The media of the NATO countries have repeatedly shown a falsified (deliberately accelerated) video recording of the destruction of the train at the moment of passing over the bridge.
It was alleged that the pilot accidentally caught the train on the bridge. The plane and train were moving too fast and the pilot was unable to make a meaningful decision, the result is a tragic accident.

Details about the operation of the United States and its allies "Allied Force"

The peculiarity of the military conflict in Yugoslavia was that it included two "mini-wars": NATO aggression against the FRY and internal armed confrontation on ethnic grounds between Serbs and Albanians in the autonomous province of Kosovo. Moreover, the reason for the NATO armed intervention was a sharp aggravation in 1998 of the hitherto sluggish current conflict. Moreover, one cannot ignore the objective fact of the constant, methodical escalation of tension in the cradle of Serbian culture - Kosovo - at first hidden, and then, starting from the late 1980s, almost undisguised support for the separatist aspirations of the Albanian population by the West.
Accusing Belgrade of disrupting negotiations on the future of the rebellious region and of not agreeing to accept the humiliating ultimatum of the West, which boiled down to the demand for the actual occupation of Kosovo, on March 29, 1999, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana orders the Supreme Commander of the bloc's combined armed forces in Europe, American General Wesley Clark, to start a military campaign in the form of an air operation against Yugoslavia, called the "Allied Force", which was based on the so-called "Plan 10601", which provided for several phases of military operations. It is noteworthy that the fundamental concept of this operation was developed in the summer of the previous year, 1998, and in October of the same year it was refined and specified.

BYPASSED AND ADDED

Despite the careful study of all direct and related issues related to the operation, the Western allies faced the fact of the crime they were committing. The definition of aggression adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1974 (resolution 3314) unequivocally states: “Will be qualified as an act of aggression: the bombing by the armed forces of states of the territory of another state. No considerations of any nature, whether political, economic, military or otherwise, can justify aggression.” But the North Atlantic Alliance did not even try to obtain UN sanction, since Russia and China would still block the draft Security Council resolution if it were put to a vote.

However, the NATO leadership still managed to beat in its favor the struggle of interpretations of international law that was unfolding within the walls of the UN, when the Security Council, at the very beginning of the aggression, expressed its de facto consent to the operation, rejecting (three votes for, 12 against) the proposal submitted by Russia a draft resolution calling for the renunciation of the use of force against Yugoslavia. Thus, all grounds for a formal condemnation of the instigators of the military campaign allegedly disappeared.

Moreover, looking ahead, we note that after the end of the aggression on open meeting Security Council Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Carla del Ponte, said that there was no corpus delicti in the actions of NATO countries against Yugoslavia since March 1999 and that the accusations against the political and military leadership of the bloc were unfounded. The chief prosecutor also said that the decision not to open an investigation into the allegations against the bloc was final and was made after a thorough study by the experts of the tribunal of the materials submitted by the government of the FRY, the Commission State Duma Russian Federation, a group of experts in the field of international law and a number of public organizations.

But, according to Alejandro Teitelbom, a representative of the Association of American Lawyers at the UN European Headquarters in Geneva, Carla del Ponte “actually admitted that it is very difficult for her to take steps that run counter to the interests of the North Atlantic Alliance,” since the content of the Hague Tribunal costs millions of dollars. , and most of this money is provided by the United States, so in the event of such actions on her part, she may simply lose her job.
Nevertheless, feeling the precariousness of the arguments of the initiators of this military campaign, some NATO member countries, primarily Greece, began to resist the pressure of the military-political leadership of the alliance, thereby casting doubt on the possibility of carrying out a military action in general, since, in accordance with the NATO Charter, this requires the consent of all members of the block. However, in the end, Washington managed to "squeeze" its allies.

SCRIPT WASHINGTON

The multinational grouping of the joint NATO navies in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas by the beginning of hostilities consisted of 35 warships, including American, British, French and Italian aircraft carriers, as well as ships carrying cruise missiles. Direct involvement 14 states took part in the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia - the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, Norway and Hungary. The main burden fell on the shoulders of the US Air Force and Navy pilots, who accounted for over 60% of sorties in the first month and a half of the campaign, although American aircraft accounted for only 42% of the NATO combat aviation grouping in the region. The aviation of Great Britain, France and Italy was also relatively actively involved. The participation of nine other NATO countries in air strikes was minimal and pursued rather a political goal - to demonstrate the unity and cohesion of the allies.

In essence, it was precisely according to Washington's scenario and, as the subsequent analysis of military operations confirmed, in accordance with instructions that came directly from the Pentagon, that the content and duration of the phases of the entire campaign were repeatedly adjusted. This, of course, could not but cause discontent on the part of some of the most influential European allies of the United States. Thus, for example, representatives of France in the North Atlantic Alliance, which made essentially the second largest contribution to the air campaign, openly accused Washington of "sometimes operating outside NATO." And this despite the fact that France, which did not fully delegate its powers to NATO (since it formally remained outside the military structure of the bloc), previously reserved for itself the privilege of special information about all the nuances of conducting an air campaign.

Already after the end of hostilities, the Supreme Commander of NATO in Europe, American general Clark, candidly admitted that he did not take into account the opinion of "those who, due to nervousness, sought to change the objects of strikes." Under the veil of imaginary "unity" of the positions of the member states of the alliance, in reality, there were severe contradictions in the scheme of operational actions in the Balkans. At the same time, Germany and Greece were the main opponents of the escalation. German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping, already during the conflict, even made a statement that German government generally "is not going to conduct a discussion on this matter." For its part, the Greek leadership, itself for many years faced with Albanian, including criminal, expansion and hardly agreed to “punish” Belgrade for “oppressing the Albanian minority”, began to artificially create obstacles to the expansion of hostilities. In particular, Athens did not allow its Turkish "ally" to use Greek airspace as part of the campaign against Yugoslavia.

The arrogance of the Americans, who took control of the entire campaign into their own hands, sometimes aroused bewilderment, bordering on open discontent, even among Washington's devoted "friends". So, for example, Ankara was, to put it mildly, "surprised" that, without agreement with it, the NATO military leadership announced the allocation of three air bases located in Turkey to the alliance's disposal. Even the facts of the refusal of the command of the Canadian contingent - Washington's most devoted Anglo-Saxon ally - to bomb "doubtful" targets in Yugoslavia, indicated by the leadership of the bloc, from the point of view of Ottawa, became public.

The states newly admitted to NATO - the Czech Republic and Poland (not to mention Hungary, which took a direct part in hostilities) - in contrast to their "senior" European counterparts in the alliance, on the contrary, demonstrated full support for the "flexible" position of Brussels and Washington and declared on the readiness to provide its military infrastructure for the solution of any tasks of NATO as part of the aggression against Yugoslavia.
Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Macedonia showed even greater zeal in the hope of Washington's loyalty in resolving the issue of the upcoming admission to NATO, proactively announcing the provision of their airspace(some completely, some partially) at the disposal of the OVVS block. In general, as follows from the comments of experts, many of the frictions within the alliance were based on Washington's lack of awareness of European allies regarding specific plans within each phase of the campaign.

TESTS AND INTERNSHIPS

Pragmatic Washington, as in most other wars of the new time, especially disregarding the position of the allies, tried to "squeeze" the maximum out of the military conflict, "killing two birds with one stone": the overthrow of the Slobodan Milosevic regime, which became an overnight obstacle to the implementation of the plans of the White House in the Balkans and experimenting with new means of armed struggle, forms and methods of military operations.

The Americans made the most of the opportunity by testing the latest air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, cluster bombs with homing submunitions, and other weapons. In real combat conditions, modernized and new reconnaissance, control, communications, navigation, electronic warfare systems, all types of support were tested; issues of interaction between types of aircraft, as well as aviation and forces special purpose(which, perhaps, was the most significant in the light of the latest directives of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld personally at that time; the concept of "unity").

At the insistence of the Americans, carrier aircraft were used as part of reconnaissance and strike combat systems and were only "carriers of ammunition." They took off from air bases in the United States, NATO countries in Europe and aircraft carriers in the seas surrounding the Balkans, delivered to launch lines beyond the reach of Yugoslav air defense systems pre-targeted at specific critical points cruise missiles, launched them and left for new ammunition. In addition, other methods and forms of aviation were used.

Later, taking advantage of the forced delay in the operation, again at the initiative of the Americans, the NATO command began to practice the so-called "combat training" of reservist pilots. After 10-15 independent sorties, which was considered sufficient to acquire combat experience, they were replaced by other "trainees". Moreover, the military leadership of the bloc was not at all disturbed by the fact that during this period there were the largest number almost daily, according to the NATO members themselves, blunders of the alliance's aviation when delivering strikes against ground targets.

The fact was that the leadership of the unit’s OVVS, in order to minimize the losses of the flight crew, gave the order to “bomb” without dropping below 4.5–5 thousand meters, as a result of which compliance international norms waging war became simply impossible. The large-scale disposal of surpluses of obsolete bomb weapons that took place in the final phase of the operation by striking at a wide range mainly economic objects in Yugoslavia.
In total, which is not denied in principle by NATO representatives, in the course of hostilities, NATO aircraft destroyed about 500 important objects, of which at least half were purely civilian. At the same time, the losses of the civilian population of Yugoslavia were estimated, according to various sources, from 1.2 to 2 and even more than 5 thousand people.

It is noteworthy that in comparison with the gigantic economic damage (according to Yugoslav estimates - approximately 100 billion dollars), the damage to the military potential of Yugoslavia was not so significant. For example, there were few air battles (which was explained by the desire of the Serbs to maintain their air force in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the alliance's aviation), and the losses of the FRY in aviation were minimal - 6 aircraft in air battles and 22 at airfields. In addition, Belgrade reported that his army had lost only 13 tanks.

However, NATO reports also contained much larger, but by no means impressive numbers: 93 “successful strikes” on tanks, 153 on armored personnel carriers, 339 on military vehicles, 389 on gun and mortar positions. However, these data were criticized by analysts from the intelligence and military leadership of the alliance itself. And in an unpublished report by the US Air Force, it was generally reported that the confirmed number of Yugoslav mobile targets destroyed was 14 tanks, 18 armored personnel carriers and 20 pieces of artillery.
By the way, in turn, the Serbs, summing up the results of the 78-day resistance, insisted on the following NATO losses: 61 aircraft, seven helicopters, 30 UAVs and 238 cruise missiles. The Allies naturally denied these figures. Although, according to independent experts, they are very close to the true ones.

BOMB, NOT FIGHT

Without questioning the sometimes truly "experimental" nature of military operations on the part of the allies led by the Americans, one cannot but agree with those independent experts who state serious mistakes made by NATO, which, in general, consisted in underestimating the level of operational-strategic and tactical thinking of commanders and officers of the Yugoslav armed forces, who deeply analyzed the manner in which the Americans acted in local conflicts, primarily in the 1990-1991 war in the Persian Gulf zone. After all, it is no coincidence that the alliance command was forced to revise the general plan for conducting the operation, first getting involved in a protracted and extremely costly military conflict, and then bringing up the question of the advisability of conducting the ground phase of the operation, which was not originally planned.

Indeed, during the preparatory period for the aggression, there were no large-scale regroupings of NATO ground forces in the states adjacent to Yugoslavia. For example, in Albania and Macedonia were concentrated ground forces with a total number of only 26 thousand people, while, according to Western analysts, in order to conduct an effective operation against the sufficiently trained armed forces of Yugoslavia, it was necessary to create a ground grouping with a total number of at least 200 thousand people.

In May, NATO reviewed the overall concept of the operation and put forward the idea of urgent preparations for the ground phase of hostilities in again provoked sharp criticism from influential European members of the alliance. For example, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder vehemently rejected the proposal to send Allied ground troops to Kosovo as leading to a dead end. France also rejected this idea, but under the pretext that at that time it did not have a sufficient number of "free" formations of ground forces.
Yes, and American legislators have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of this undertaking. According to the calculations of the US Congressional Budget Office, in addition to the already existing monthly cost of the operation of $ 1 billion, in the case of a ground phase, at least another $ 200 million will have to be added for the maintenance of only one Army division.

But perhaps most of all the allies, primarily the Americans, were concerned about the question of possible losses in the case of ground battles with Yugoslav units and formations. According to American experts, the damage in military operations in Kosovo alone could be from 400 to 1,500 servicemen, who would no longer be able to be hidden from the public. As, for example, carefully concealed data on the losses, according to estimates, of several dozen NATO pilots and special forces who “advised” Yugoslav Albanians and participated in the rescue of downed NATO pilots. As a result, the US Congress voted against considering a resolution allowing American President how supreme commander armed forces to use ground forces in the course of a military operation against Yugoslavia.

One way or another, it did not come to ground military operations between the Allies and the Yugoslav troops. However, from the very beginning of the aggression, the NATO command in every possible way stimulated the activity of the "Kosovo Liberation Army", which consisted of Kosovo Albanians and representatives of the Albanian diasporas of the United States and a number of European countries. But the formations of the KLA, equipped and trained by NATO, in battles with Serbian border guards and regular units of the Armed Forces, proved to be far from in the best way. According to some media reports, the most major operation Albanian militants against Serbian troops in Kosovo, which was attended by up to 4 thousand people, carried out in parallel with the NATO air campaign, ended in the complete defeat of the KLA units and the retreat of their remnants to the territory of Albania.

Under these conditions, the NATO leadership was left with the only way to resolve the problem it had created: to hit Yugoslavia with all the might of its potential. Which it did, sharply increasing its Air Force grouping to 1,120 aircraft (including 625 combat aircraft) in the last ten days of May, and adding two more aircraft carriers to the four aircraft carriers on combat duty in the seas adjacent to Yugoslavia, as well as five carriers of cruise missiles and a number of others. ships. Naturally, this was accompanied by an unprecedented intensity of raids on military and civilian targets on Yugoslav territory.

Relying on its colossal air power and putting Belgrade before a choice - the loss of Kosovo or the total destruction of the economy, the economic and humanitarian disaster, - NATO forced the leadership of Yugoslavia to surrender and decided at that time the Kosovo problem in its own interests. Undoubtedly, the Serbs would not be able to resist the NATO group in open battles if the aggression continued, but they were quite able to conduct a successful guerrilla war on their territory for some time with the full support of the population, as was the case during the Second World War. But what happened happened!

CONCLUSIONS MADE

This military campaign once again demonstrated how much their European partners in the NATO bloc depend on the United States. It was the Americans who were the main striking force of the aggressor - 55% of combat aircraft (by the end of the war), over 95% of cruise missiles, 80% of bombs and missiles dropped, all strategic bombers, 60% of reconnaissance aircraft and UAVs, 24 reconnaissance satellites out of 25 and the vast majority precision weapons belonged to the United States.
The Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Italian Admiral Guido Venturoni, was even forced to admit: “Only using the funds provided by the overseas partner, the European countries of NATO can conduct independent operations, while the creation of a European component in the field of defense and security remains a noble idea.”

It is impossible not to pay tribute to the leadership of the North Atlantic Alliance, which not only stated the fact that the European allies of the United States lagged behind their "big brother" in all aspects of the development of military potential, but also, following the results of the anti-Yugoslav campaign, took a number of drastic measures leading to correcting the negative from the point of view of view of Brussels (and Washington in the first place) position. First of all, it was decided to speed up the protracted process of reforming the Armed Forces European countries– members of the block, within which, among other things, the lion’s share of the costs provided for in national budgets for the purchase of weapons and military equipment, for the acquisition of high-precision weapons (in the United States, of course), to reform the logistics system, and much more.

But, according to NATO strategists, the most important task facing the US allies in Europe continues to be the creation of such formations of expeditionary forces that could participate on an equal footing with the Americans in creating the model of world order that Washington needs.

During 1991-2001 about 300 thousand bombs were dropped throughout the territory of the former Yugoslavia and more than 1 thousand rockets were fired. In the struggle of individual republics for their independence big role played NATO, which solved its own and American problems by bombing a country in the center of Europe in stone Age. The war in Yugoslavia, the years and events of which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of inhabitants, should serve as a lesson for society, since even in our modern life it is necessary not only to appreciate, but also to maintain such a fragile world peace with all our might...

Accused of war crimes committed during the armed conflict on the territory of Croatia in 1991-1995.

The collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in the early 1990s was accompanied by civil wars and ethnic conflicts with the intervention of foreign states. Fighting in varying degrees and at different times affected all six republics of the former Yugoslavia. Total number The number of victims of conflicts in the Balkans since the early 1990s has exceeded 130,000. The material damage amounts to tens of billions of dollars.

Conflict in Slovenia(June 27 - July 7, 1991) became the most transient. The armed conflict, known as the Ten-Day War or the Slovenian War of Independence, began after the declaration of independence by Slovenia on June 25, 1991.

Units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), which launched an offensive, faced fierce resistance from local self-defense units. According to the data of the Slovenian side, the losses of the JNA amounted to 45 people killed and 146 wounded. About 5,000 servicemen and employees of federal services were taken prisoner. The losses of the Slovenian Self-Defense Forces amounted to 19 killed and 182 wounded. Also killed 12 citizens of foreign countries.

The war ended with the signing, mediated by the EU, of the Brioni Agreement on July 7, 1991, under which the JNA pledged to cease hostilities on the territory of Slovenia. Slovenia suspended for three months the entry into force of the declaration of independence.

Conflict in Croatia(1991-1995) is also associated with the declaration of independence by this republic on June 25, 1991. During the armed conflict, which in Croatia is called Patriotic War, Croatian forces confronted the JNA and formations of local Serbs supported by the authorities in Belgrade.

In December 1991, the independent Republic of Serbian Krajina was proclaimed with a population of 480 thousand people (91% - Serbs). Thus, Croatia lost a significant part of its territory. In the next three years, Croatia intensively strengthened its regular army, participated in the civil war in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995) and conducted limited military operations against Serbian Krajina.

In February 1992, the UN Security Council sent a UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) to Croatia. Initially, UNPROFOR was seen as a temporary formation to create the conditions necessary for negotiations on a comprehensive settlement of the Yugoslav crisis. In June 1992, after the conflict intensified and spread to BiH, the mandate and strength UNPROFOR has been expanded.

In August 1995, the Croatian army launched a large-scale operation "Storm" and broke through the defenses of the Krajina Serbs in a matter of days. The fall of Krajina resulted in the exodus from Croatia of almost the entire Serbian population, which was 12% before the war. Having achieved success on their territory, the Croatian troops entered Bosnia and Herzegovina and, together with the Bosnian Muslims, launched an offensive against the Bosnian Serbs.

The conflict in Croatia was accompanied by mutual ethnic cleansing of the Serbian and Croatian populations. During this conflict, according to estimates, 20-26 thousand people died (mostly Croats), about 550 thousand became refugees, with a population of about 4.7 million people in Croatia. The territorial integrity of Croatia was finally restored in 1998.

The largest and fiercest was war in Bosnia and Herzegovina(1992-1995) with the participation of Muslims (Boshnak), Serbs and Croats. The escalation of tension followed the independence referendum held in that republic on February 29-March 1, 1992, with a boycott by the majority of Bosnian Serbs. The conflict involved the JNA, the Croatian army, mercenaries from all sides, as well as NATO armed forces.

The Dayton Agreement, initialed on November 21, 1995 at the US military base in Dayton, Ohio, and signed on December 14, 1995 in Paris by Bosnian Muslim leader Aliya Izetbegovic, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman put an end to the conflict. The agreement determined the post-war structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina and provided for the entry of an international peacekeeping contingent under NATO command of 60,000 people.

Immediately prior to the development of the Dayton Agreement, in August-September 1995, NATO aircraft carried out the "Deliberate Force" air operation against the Bosnian Serbs. This operation played a role in changing the military situation in favor of the Muslim-Croat forces, who launched an offensive against the Bosnian Serbs.

The Bosnian war was accompanied by mass ethnic cleansing and reprisals against civilians. During this conflict, about 100 thousand people (mostly Muslims) died, another two million became refugees, out of the pre-war population of BiH of 4.4 million people. Before the war, Muslims made up 43.6% of the population, Serbs 31.4%, Croats 17.3%.

The damage from the war amounted to tens of billions of dollars. Economy and social sphere BiH were almost completely destroyed.

Armed conflict in the southern province of Serbia Kosovo and Metohija(1998-1999) was associated with a sharp aggravation of contradictions between Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians (now 90-95% of the population of the province). Serbia launched a large-scale military operation against the militants of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who were seeking independence from Belgrade. After the failure of the attempt to reach peace agreements in Rambouillet (France), in early 1999, the NATO countries, led by the United States, began massive bombardments of the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). The NATO military operation, undertaken unilaterally, without the sanction of the UN Security Council, lasted from March 24 to June 10, 1999. Large-scale ethnic cleansing was cited as the reason for the intervention of NATO troops.

On June 10, 1999, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244, which put an end to hostilities. The resolution provided for the entry of the UN administration and an international peacekeeping contingent under NATO command (at the initial stage, 49.5 thousand people). The document provided for the determination at a later stage of the final status of Kosovo.

During the Kosovo conflict and NATO bombing, an estimated 10,000 people (mostly Albanians) died. About a million people became refugees and displaced persons, out of a pre-war population of Kosovo of 2 million people. Most Albanian refugees, unlike Serb refugees, have returned to their homes.

On February 17, 2008, Kosovo's parliament unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. The self-proclaimed state was recognized by 71 countries out of 192 UN member countries.

In 2000-2001 there was a sharp aggravation of the situation in southern Serbia, in the communities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medveja, the majority of whose population is Albanian. The clashes in southern Serbia are known as the Presevo Valley conflict.

Albanian fighters from the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedzhi and Buyanovac fought for the separation of these territories from Serbia. The escalation took place in a 5-kilometer "ground security zone" created in 1999 on the territory of Serbia as a result of the Kosovo conflict in accordance with the Kumanovo military-technical agreement. According to the agreement, the Yugoslav side did not have the right to keep army and security forces in the NZB, with the exception of the local police, who were allowed to carry only small arms.

The situation in southern Serbia stabilized after Belgrade and NATO reached an agreement in May 2001 on the return of the Yugoslav army contingent to the "ground security zone." Agreements were also reached on an amnesty for militants, the formation of a multinational police force, the integration local population into public structures.

During the crisis in southern Serbia, it is estimated that several Serbian soldiers and civilians, as well as several dozen Albanians.

In 2001 there was armed conflict in Macedonia with the participation of the Albanian National Liberation Army and regular army Macedonia.

In the winter of 2001, Albanian militants began military guerrilla actions, seeking independence. northwestern regions country populated predominantly by Albanians.

The confrontation between the Macedonian authorities and the Albanian militants was put to an end by the active intervention of the European Union and NATO. The Ohrid Agreement was signed, which provided Albanians in Macedonia (20-30% of the population) with limited legal and cultural autonomy(official status of the Albanian language, amnesty for militants, Albanian police in Albanian areas).

As a result of the conflict, according to various estimates, more than 70 Macedonian soldiers and 700 to 800 Albanians were killed.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti

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