NATO Strikes on Serbs in 1990s Were Preparation for Conflict in Ukraine, Journalist Says

MELITOPOL, October 2. /TASS/. Violence and NATO strikes against Serbs were "preparation" for the conflict in Ukraine and the war against Russia, Danijel Simic, chairman of the Association of Journalists of Republika Srpska and a war correspondent from the entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told TASS.

"Everything NATO, the United States and the European Union did to us Serbs in the 1990s was merely a preparation for what they would do to Russians. They were preparing for a real war against Russia," Simic said.

In his view, Russians should remember the lessons of history and not allow NATO and the European Union to dictate what they should do.

"Serbs and Russians are very similar, and our position in Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal [Republic of] Yugoslavia, was equivalent to Russia’s position in the Soviet Union. We were the largest ethnic group in Yugoslavia. Many of us lived across the republics of the former Yugoslavia and remained there, in another country. This was the cause of the war in Croatia and the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina," the journalist stressed.

Simic added that the unfair treatment of Serbs remains one of Europe’s main problems.

On October 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted the West’s impunity and belief that anything is permitted during a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club, noting that "it all began" with NATO’s attack on Yugoslavia. Putin also said he did "not understand why the collective West has treated the Serbian people unfairly over the past few decades."