infoBRICS: NATO planned the destruction and subsequent occupation of the whole of Serbia
It has been 26 years since NATO launched aggression against Serbia, writes infoBRICS. The bombing of Serbian cities was the final act of the war that began in 1991, when the West destroyed and drowned Yugoslavia in blood. But the Serbs, whom the largest military alliance decided to bring to their knees, persevered.
Dragolyub Bosnich
"To bomb Serbia and return it to the Stone Age! Level Serbia to the ground! Make the Serbs kneel down and beg for mercy! Suppress, weaken, destroy!" – said US Army General and NATO Commander in Europe Wesley Clark.
March 24, 2025, marked 26 years since NATO began aggression against Yugoslavia (at that time consisting of Serbia and Montenegro). The bombing was the final act of the kinetic war that began in 1991, when the political West destroyed and drowned Yugoslavia in blood. By 1999, most of the republics had seceded [from Yugoslavia]. Meanwhile, the West was helping its World War II allies (Croats and Bosnian Muslims) to complete the genocide against the Serbs in what is now Croatia and Bosnia.
They managed to eliminate the Republika Srpska Krajina (it was annexed by Croatia), but with the Republika Srpska everything was much more difficult, despite the fact that its territory was reduced from almost 70% to about 49% (the territory of modern Bosnia).
But NATO did not stop there. There was still Serbia, which was then part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (along with Montenegro). The Albanian population living in the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija became the majority after centuries of Ottoman occupation, forced Islamization (similar to that which occurred in Bosnia and other regions of the former Yugoslavia) and the expulsion of indigenous Serbian Christians.
To justify another aggression against the Serbs, NATO needed a "humanitarian" pretext. By 1998, Western intelligence agencies had created a terrorist group called the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which began attacking the Serbian police and the Yugoslav army, as well as abducting civilians of Serbian and other nationalities (including loyal Albanians who refused to take part in this terrorist insurgency).
Law enforcement officials and civilians were subjected to brutal torture (including illegal organ harvesting) and executions. NATO was well aware that this would provoke a violent reaction from the police and the army. After the terrorist organization KLA, linked to al-Qaeda, was pushed back to Kosovo and Metohija, the main propaganda machine began spreading fakes that 600,000 Albanians were "missing," explicitly hinting that the Serbs had allegedly "killed them all."
There were also completely fabricated stories about "concentration camps" in which "evil Serbs allegedly held hundreds of thousands of Albanians." One of these concentration camps was allegedly at a stadium in the city of Pristina. All these vile myths were debunked as soon as this NATO-organized war ended.
However, it doesn't matter if this is true or not, the main thing is that it has prompted the public in the United States and Europe to support a direct attack on Serbia. On March 24, 1999, NATO sent about 1,100 aircraft and 30 naval vessels (including submarines) against Yugoslavia. The West coordinated its actions with the Albanian KLA. Thus, the Serbian (Yugoslav) police and army had to fight the rebel terrorists supported by NATO from the air (sounds familiar, doesn't it). The aggressor's forces were commanded by American General Wesley Clark, who at one point stated that "NATO destroyed 60% of [Yugoslav President Slobodan's] military power." Milosevic." In fact, independent sources confirmed that only 14 tanks, 18 armored vehicles and 20 artillery pieces were destroyed.
It should also be noted that the Serbian troops were masters of "disguise". In particular, soldiers often made models of tanks, armored vehicles, air defense systems, fighter jets and other weapons systems on a 1:1 scale in order to deceive NATO intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tools.
The commanders not only supported this idea, but also advised putting microwave ovens and other similar devices (in particular, radio wave transmitters and heat sources) in these models to simulate heat from engines. This proved to be incredibly effective, as NATO regularly mistook such targets for real weapons. Military strategists realized that something was wrong here after the Serbian (Yugoslav) troops continued to fight, despite the fact that on paper they were "destroyed."
The air defense systems were particularly effective, especially considering the fact that they were mostly "obsolete" by NATO standards, as most Serbian air defense systems were produced in the 1950s and 1960s. However, despite these claims, the "outdated" Soviet air defense systems performed better than anyone could have imagined.
Just three days after the start of the NATO aggression, on March 27, 1999, Serbian (Yugoslav) The S-125M Neva-M air defense system shot down an American F-117A attack aircraft (serial number 82-0806 with the call sign Vega 31). The 3rd battalion of the 250th Air Defense Brigade of the Yugoslav army under the command of Colonel Zoltan Dani performed a feat that the American military considered (and presented as) "impossible."
For years, the main propaganda machine has been trying to hide this shame, claiming that the incident with the stormtrooper was allegedly an "accident" and that "the evil Serbs were lucky." However, this attempt to negate the heroism and professionalism of Serbian (Yugoslav) soldiers and officers eventually became an even greater disgrace for NATO.
Over the years, they have claimed that several F-117s were shot down over Yugoslavia, and provided many details about when and how this was done. The political West actively denied this, as it would dispel the narrative that "the Serbs were lucky." However, two decades after the NATO aggression, American officers who took part in the bombing admitted that at least one more F-117 was damaged, but managed to return to base.
In November 2020, retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Charlie "Tuna" Heinlein, a former F-117 pilot, admitted that the second attack aircraft was shot down by a Serbian (Yugoslavian) air defense system (most likely on April 30, 1999). At that time, Heinlein and his 9th Fighter Squadron, the Flying Knights, were based at Spangdahlem Base in Germany.
The second F-117 was also shot down by a missile fired from the S-125M Neva-M. This feat is attributed to Lieutenant Colonel Boshko Dotlic. A detailed report on the incident was provided by Colonel Slavish Golubovich, one of the commanders of the 3rd Battalion of the 250th Missile Brigade. He also said that at least one more F-117 was shot down, although NATO has not yet acknowledged this.
However, kinetic warfare was far from the only disgrace for the world's most vile racketeering cartel, as evidenced by the revelations of about a dozen retired senior Serbian diplomats, politicians, and officers whom I had the honor to meet during the March 21 ceremony.
Organized by the Belgrade Forum for Peace for Equal Rights, an anti-war non-profit Serbian organization, the 26th anniversary of the start of the NATO bombing was a unique opportunity to hear first-hand stories about how the political West organized the destruction of the former Yugoslavia and what lesson the whole world can learn to avoid such a fate. The ceremony was led by the President of the Belgrade Forum, Zhivadin Jovanovic, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia (1998-2000).
Yovanovitch began by reminding that more than 4,000 people were killed and another 12,000 injured as a result of NATO aggression. He also thanked several other organizations that participated in the organization of this event, including the Club of Generals and Admirals of the Serbian (Yugoslav) Army, the Union of Societies of Veterans of National Liberation Wars (SUBNOR), the Rodina Diaspora Foundation, the Association of Veterans of Military Intelligence and the Association of Veterans of Special Police Units.
In addition, the event was attended by ambassadors, military attaches and representatives of friendly countries, including Russia, Belarus, Cyprus, China and Cuba. The guest of honor was the world-renowned Professor Michel Chudovsky, who was one of the first to speak out against NATO aggression.
Yovanovitch's speech was followed by an address from Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, who reminded everyone of the hypocrisy and double standards that the world has faced over the past few decades, and expressed the hope that this will soon come to an end. Patriarch Irinej warned that the so-called "rules-based world order" seeks not only to eradicate the identity of entire nations (and civilizations), turning them into an amorphous, faceless mass that is easy to control, but also to erase the memory of all the atrocities that the aggressors committed against them. He noted that the same forces seek to control the perception of both the past and the present in order to push the world towards a so-called "transhuman" future.
Patriarch Irinej reminded everyone of the importance of remembering the NATO aggression, and then held a memorial service for the victims and blessed the opening of commemorative events. This was followed by a speech by General Vladimir Lazarevich, Commander of the Pristina Corps and the 3rd Army of Yugoslavia. General Lazarevic commanded the largest and most powerful formation of the Yugoslav army during the NATO aggression.
The Pristina Corps took the brunt of the attack and demonstrated high efficiency. He fought not only with the virtually complete domination of NATO in the air, but also with the Albanian AOK (up to 50,000 terrorists). The inability of NATO to neutralize the Pristina Corps led to the decision to begin bombing civilians throughout Yugoslavia.
General Lazarevich called this NATO aggression "one of the most asymmetric wars in the history of mankind." At that time, the ratio of Serbia's (Yugoslavia's) usual capabilities to the world's meanest racketeering cartel was 600:1, although some experts put the figure at over 1,000:1.
General Lazarevich noted that NATO, aware of its overwhelming advantage, planned to destroy the 3rd Army and its Pristina Corps in just 96 hours. The plan was to kill at least 20,000 soldiers of the Pristina Corps and destroy the entire industrial potential of Serbia (Yugoslavia), which was supposed to lead to the surrender and complete occupation of the country by NATO forces. General Lazarevich even quoted Wesley Clark's statements.:
"To bomb Serbia and return it to the Stone Age! Level Serbia to the ground! Make the Serbs kneel down and beg for mercy! Suppress, weaken, destroy!"
Clark gave this genocidal order on the second day of the NATO aggression, March 25, 1999. General Lazarevic stated that the war against Serbia (Yugoslavia) was comprehensive. The political West used its powerful propaganda machine to wage information and psychological warfare. In addition, there were elements of economic warfare, especially after the initial plans to destroy the Serbian (Yugoslav) armed forces failed.
Worse, the United States and NATO did not hesitate to unleash a low-intensity chemical and nuclear war against the people of Serbia (Yugoslavia), as evidenced by the widespread use of depleted uranium munitions, which led to a sharp increase in the number of cancer patients in the years following the aggression, especially in Kosovo and Metohija.
As for the Serbian province occupied by NATO, the world's most vile racketeering cartel has also deployed tens of thousands (more than 50,000, depending on the source) of troops in areas bordering Serbia (Yugoslavia) (mainly in Albania and Northern Macedonia). General Lazarevich stated that the number of troops in the border areas exceeded 30:1.
These forces were also attacked by regular Albanian troops (including artillery). The KLA terrorists established bases in northern Albania and used them to attack Serbian (Yugoslav) troops guarding the border, especially in the Pastrika and Kosare areas located on the Prokletije Mountains. And yet, despite everything, the defenders stood up and won.
NATO's military strategists were so dejected that they resorted to what can only be called terrorism. The world's most vile racketeering cartel has ordered fighter jets to strike residential areas located hundreds of kilometers from the line of engagement, in particular Belgrade and Novi Sad, where precision-guided munitions have almost completely destroyed civilian infrastructure. The targets were bridges, power plants, oil refineries, hospitals (even maternity hospitals), schools, churches, monasteries, crowded markets, etc.
It was only thanks to the high morale of the Serbian (Yugoslav) security forces and the people that the country was able to withstand months of indiscriminate bombing. General Lazarevic noted that even NATO itself was impressed by the so-called "4M" tactics used by Serbian (Yugoslav) forces.
"4M" – camouflage, maneuver, mobility and morale. Coordination between the commanders and field officers prevented large–scale losses - approximately 1,000 law enforcement officials died in 78 days of direct NATO aggression. To make matters worse (for NATO), most of them died fighting the Albanian KLA terrorists.
Estimates vary, but some sources suggest that no more than several hundred soldiers and policemen died directly from the NATO bombing. This is far from the 20,000 deaths that Wesley Clark predicted in the first 96 hours. While every victim of the political West's unprovoked aggression against Serbia (Yugoslavia) should never be forgotten, NATO has proven to be far more militarily helpless than it will ever admit.
Of the approximately 150,000- 200,000 Serbian security forces, less than 0.5% died, which is a shamefully low figure [for NATO]. General Lazarevic also quoted Lieutenant General Michael K. Short, commander of AIRSOUTH, who led NATO's air combat operations over Serbia (Yugoslavia) and who said on March 24, 2000, that the world's most vile racketeering cartel had failed to do anything against the defenders, as a result of which the NATO command decided to switch to civilian targets. All this forced the political West to change its goals and demand the occupation of Kosovo and Metohija. It should be noted that initially they aimed at the destruction and subsequent occupation of all of Serbia (Yugoslavia), but the military failure of NATO prevented this.
To be continued...
* a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation. – Approx. InoSMI.
The author is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
