March to Pristina: How Russian Paratroopers Disrupted NATO’s Plans in The Balkans in 1999
A highly secretive mission conducted by Russian Airborne Forces in Kosovo was of geopolitical importance, highlighting Russia as a force to be reckoned with, experts told Sputnik.
SputnikOn June 12, 1999, a combined battalion of Russian paratroopers deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the UN-mandated peacekeeping Stabilization Force (SFOR) marched 600 kilometers to take control of the Slatina Airport near Pristina.
The operation was conducted at the end of
the 1999 Kosovo War, which finally saw the then Yugoslav army’s withdrawal from Serbia’s breakaway province.
On June 11, 1999, 206 Russian paratroopers left the Bosnian town of Ugljevik, driving their armored personnel carriers (APCs) across then-Yugoslavia towards Pristina. There were a total of 15 APCs and 35 military vehicles, plus several refueling vehicles, which reached Kosovo’s capital on June 12, not least thanks to efforts by Serbian police who cleared the road for the Russian troops, securing a "green corridor."
The march, which is now widely known as "the forced march to Pristina," was followed by a Russian peacekeeping force of 650 men serving in Kosovo in subsequent years.
The goal of the Pristina mission was to show "the Russian people’s fraternal support for Serbs and to influence the situation in the future," retired Lieutenant General Nikolay Staskov, former chief of staff of the Russian Airborne Forces and one of those who took part in the mission, said in an interview with Sputnik.
He stressed that Russian troops acted faster than NATO forces, who were also tasked with seizing Slatina Airport. The BTR-80 armored personnel carriers with Russian paratroopers moved at "an almost unthinkable" speed to cover more than 600 km (372 miles) so that the highly secretive mission could be accomplished as quickly as possible, Staskov recalled.
28 December 2023, 18:46 GMT
"NATO leadership reacted angrily to the fact that the Russian airborne battalion had managed to outpace the alliance’s forces. UK General [Mike] Jackson [who commanded the freshly created Kosovo Force (KFOR) at the time], saw that the Russian troops were in full combat readiness and could use weapons, so he made his famous remark ‘I'm not going to start the Third World War for you [General Wesley Clark, then-top American commander in Europe],’" Staskov said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted in this vein that "Thank God, the demands of hotheads in Washington and other Western capitals, particularly in London, to rein in the Russians did not prevail, yielding to professional actions by Western military, including British servicemen."
Staskov, in turn, cited then-Russian President Boris Yelstin as praising the "excellent" actions by Russian paratroopers. Yelstin also expressed satisfaction with the fact that he “at last managed to give NATO a flick on the nose." An unnamed official is said to have reacted by saying: "You, Boris Nikolayevich, didn't give them a flick on the nose - you punched them in the face."
"Most importantly, the Russian Armed Forces felt at the time that they were capable, in the person of the Airborne Troops, of carrying out tasks for the sake of the Motherland," Staskov concluded.
Leonid Ivashov, former head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s main department of international military cooperation, for his part, pointed to the remarkable fact that "there was not even a single wounded paratrooper in the course of the operation." He took part in the 1999 talks on the Kosovo settlement, also adding to a decision by the head of the Russian paratroopers to move to the Slatina airport.
"This facility was important from a tactical point of view. We showed that Russia cannot be thrown out of the global political process, and that the country is independent and not subordinate to NATO or anyone else," Ivashov told Sputnik.
The ex-head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s main department of international military cooperation added that the Pristina march had “a geopolitical scale” as NATO tried to push Europe towards war.
"Europeans did not want to fight or prepare for the war with Russia and they also were not interested in a conflict which could arise between the US and Russia and which could affect the economic situation in Europe and [start] a new arms race. So the Americans began to push Europe towards a major conflict," Ivashov said.
Lavrov, for his part, said that "undoubtedly, the events pertained to
NATO’s push for its eastward expansion,” something that he said was confirmed by subsequent developments.
Ivashov, in turn, recalled that the Russian paratroopers successfully entering Slatina Airport had become “the most important event” that “showed the nature of Russian soldiers” who performed perfectly during the operation.
"In Pristina, our soldiers were in the spotlight. A British unit tried to seize Slatina Airport, but to no avail," Ivashov said. He praised efforts by Russian Special Services and those of Serbia, who "worked in such a way that not a single shot was fired by Kosovo forces at the Russian paratroopers."
In a televised interview earlier this year, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin touched upon his role in the operation, which actually allowed Moscow to outstrip NATO at the time and secure Moscow’s right to partake in the settlement of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
According to Putin, who worked as the secretary of the Russian Security Council in 1999, then-Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin asked him for recommendations on how the Russian Armed Forces should act in
Kosovo, adding that he was unwilling to coordinate the actions with the Ministry of Defense.
"Anyway, he talked to me about it and asked my opinion. And I told him: if you think it's sensible - do it," Putin recalled.
He added in this context that he does not consider the operation to be “brazen behavior” by Russian paratroopers.
"Frankly speaking, I do not attach as much importance to it as some observers do," the Russian president pointed out.