MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Emergencies Ministry Sappers have defused about 300 projectiles of various calibers in Serbia this year, a ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti on Monday.
"The experts examined an area of more than 400,000 square meters and neutralized 283 explosive objects," the spokesman said.
The group has been defusing projectiles in Serbia since 2008, and in the town of Paracin, 150 kilometers south of Belgrade, since 2009. Sappers are seeking and defusing explosive objects that have been left buried in the ground since the First and Second World Wars, the NATO bombing of 1999 and an explosion at a local army warehouse in 2006. The mission is expected to end in 2017.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry cooperates with many international organizations, such as the UN Office for the Organization of Humanitarian Affairs and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Stepanov said.
One of the largest international humanitarian operations conducted by the ministry was to help the people of Yugoslavia, who suffered from the 1999 NATO bombing. Russia worked with Switzerland, Greece and Austria in the battle-torn country in the spring and summer of 1999.
