Thread by @StephanIsrael

#RussiaInvadesUkraine As Putin´s troops are bombing Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine some say that NATO also "bombed Belgrade" in 1999. I'm not in Kyiv but I was in Belgrade. No, NATO did not bomb Belgrade or other cities in Serbia into ruins. 1/

At that time, some in Belgrade even climbed onto the roofs to observe the impact, so great was the confidence in the accuracy of the NATO airstrikes, at least in the capital. Targets included the General Staff building, Batajnica Airport, but also 2/...

the Chinese embassy or the TV building. No, NATO did not target residential buildings, theaters, schools or supermarkets like Putin's troops do. After 79 days, Serbia's autocrat Slobodan Milosevic gave in and withdrew his troops from Kosovo 3/

Thanks to the NATO airstrikes, the displacement of the Albanian majority population in Kosovo was stopped and the displaced returned. Without NATO intervention, there would no longer be an Albanian population in Kosovo today. This is not the only reason why Kosovo is not Crimea 4

In Kosovo, where Belgrade had previously deprived the Albanian majority of their autonomy rights, Milosevic completed his transformation from a communist to a nationalist on Kosovo Polje in 1989. Similar to Putin today, Milosevic then covered Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia 5/

and Kosovo with a war of aggression to force Serb-populated areas in the other Yugoslav republics into a Greater Serbia. The EU proved powerless to stop the Yugoslavian disintegration process. Likewise, the UN was... 6/

unable to end the three-year siege of Sarajevo or prevent the genocide in the Srebrenica enclave. Yes, similar to Putin's troops today, the Serbian besiegers shelled between 1992 and 1995 mostly civilian targets..7/

and tried to force the Bosnian capital to capitulate. In Kosovo, the majority Albanian population under Ibrahim Rugova limited itself to peaceful resistance against the apartheid-like Serbian occupation regime for a long time. 8th/

The West only decided for to NATO intervention at the very end of the Yugoslavia wars: After years of "ethnic cleansing", the siege of Sarajevo and the genocide of Srebrenica, it was necessary to prevent another genocide in Kosovo 9/

I would also remind you of the killing of leading Kosovo politican Fehmi Agani by Serbian security forces during the mass deportations in 1999 or the humiliating staging of imprisoned leader Ibrahim Rugova in Belgrade, Putin's plan also for the leadership in Kyiv 10/10

And yes, the NATO airstrikes also claimed civilian lives. For eight years, Serbia had brought war to other former Yugoslav republics, with over 200,000 dead and millions displaced. In 1999 war came to Serbia for the first time... 11/

Following @hrw 489 and 528 civilians died as a result of the 79 days NATO airstrikes, mostly in Kosovo. During a visit we found at the time strong indications that Serbian security forces had used convoys with Albanian refugees to provoke a "collateral damage" . 11/11