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June 14

The Russian and American Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton had a telephone conversation on Sunday to discuss the situation in Kosovo in connection with the deployment of international peacekeepers there. The two leaders stressed the need for intensive dialogue, including one between the military, to speedily find agreed-on decisions to conduct peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. According to the Russian presidential press service, Yeltsin and Clinton agreed to continue to exchange views. They are expected to have another telephone conversation on Monday. On Sunday Bill Clinton also called the British Prime-Minister Tony Blair to brief him conversation with President Yeltsin. The heads of NATO's leading countries have lately been giving heed to contacts with the Russian leadership.
The Russian Security Council is to meet in the Moscow Kremlin later this Monday on instructions from President Yeltsin. The ITAR-TASS news agency quotes the Council press service as saying that the forthcoming meeting will discuss the way action has been taken on Boris Yeltsin's instructions, related to a settlement in Kosovo.
On Sunday the international peacekeeping force continued to enter Kosovo. According to a NATO spokesman is Macedonia, by Monday NATO's armed force overall strength will have reached 10000. Meanwhile the Yugoslav army last units have left Pristina. But Serbian policemen remained to maintain order there. British peacekeepers assumed control over Pristina's key motorways. And the 200 strong Russian vanguard peacekeeping force that arrived in Pristina from Bosnia on Friday night deployed at the local airport, several kilometers away from the city. The commanders of the Russia and NATO contingents are still engaged in talks on the likely ways to use the airport jointly. In all, 50000 peacekeepers are planned to be stationed in Kosovo.
The first alarming reports about a mass exodus of the Serbian population from Kosovo began to be received in London in just 48 hours after NATO unit in the framework of the KFOR peacekeeping force had begun to enter the province. According to reports by British news media on Monday, over 10000 Serbian refugees have arrived in Montenegro from Kosovo, and over 20000 have left for the North of Yugoslavia over the past two days. According to British correspondents, units of the so called "Kosovo liberation Army" return to Kosovo from their bases in Albania with a strong wish to take vengeance on Serbs. In violation of the peace plan KLA forces do not get disarmed.
The first deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Avdeyev has said that the Russian side is not content with the general situation around a Kosovo settlement. Speaking in an interview with a Russian television programme on Sunday he pointed out that much was said at the talks about Russia's decisive contribution to a settlement in Kosovo. But, he pointed out if the western partners speak so highly of Russia's role, they should provide Russia with a proper role in carrying out the operation to guarantee security in Kosovo. The first deputy Russian Foreign Minister disagreed with NATO's unilateral decision to determine sectors of responsibility with disregard for Russia's opinion.
The first six truckloads of humanitarian aid in the framework of the programme "FOCUS", involving Russia, Austria, Greece and Switzerland, arrived in Kosovo on Sunday. In all, the humanitarian convoy is made of 50 trucks and accompanied by the Austrian ambassador to Macedonia Harald Kotschi. The humanitarian programme "FOCUS" has been launched on the initiative of Russia, Greece and Switzerland to provide aid for all Kosovo refugees on Yugoslav territory, including Serbs and Albanians.
On Sunday in Kosovo a car with two German journalists came under fire from unknown persons. Both journalists were killed. This comes in an Associated Press report from Pristina. The incident took place near the town of Dulje, 40 kilometres South-West of Kosovo's administrative centre.
The United States Under-Secretary of State Thomas Pickering is leaving for China later today to offer official apologies for and give explanations about the incident involving last month's NATO bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia. This has come in a statement by the US State Secretary Madeleine Albright. The State Secretary noted that Washington continued to see the hitting of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by NATO missiles as a "tragic accident". Three Chinese nationals were killed and another 20 - injured in the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7th. The attack caused a wave of anti-American and anti-NATO protests throughout China.

June 13

The arrival of a Russian peace-keeping contingent in Kosovo markes the first stage in a Yugoslav settlement. The announcement was made on Saturday by the deputy chief of the presidential administration Sergey Prikhodko. In his words, the Russian preserve in Kosovo follows instructions from President Yeltsin. The responsibility for implementing the orders, Mr. Prikhodko said, rests with the military.
The United States and its allies in NATO hope for continuation of co-operation with Russia and other countries, which may have expressed opposition to the military campaign against Yugoslavia and have supported diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in the Balkans. President Clinton made the statement in his speech at the University of Chicago during which he touched on the situation in Kosovo.
Colonel General Viktor Zavarzin, the commander of a group of 200 Russian paratroopers in Kosovo, and the commander of NATO forces in the region General Mike Jackson discussed on Saturday night specific issues of co-operation and implementation of peacekeeping operations. Contacted by telephone in Pristina General Zavarzin said that the meeting took place at General Jackson's request and was held in the Russian General's special car. General Zavarzin said: "We discussed problems of interaction to implement the resolution of the UN Security Council on Kosovo.
The capital of Kosovo - Pristina is without water supplies. There's been a breakdown at the water tower at the town of Saikovac near Pristina. Serb sources in Pristina say workers cannot approach the tower as snipers of the co-called Kosovo Liberation Army may open fire.

June 12

Early on Saturday international peacekeeping entered Kosovo. British and French mechanized columns crossed the Macedonian-Yugoslav border to enter Kosovo from the South. They are to be following by the American landing party. Bundeswehr units will enter Kosovo from Albania. But Russian peacekeepers were the first to have reached Kosovo. Following a forced march from Bosnia their vanguard unit arrived in Kosovo's administrative center Pristina several hours ahead of others. The local population welcomed Russians as heroes. Meanwhile the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov described the premature appearance of the Russian peacekeepers' vanguard in Kosovo as an "unpremeditated error". According to a spokesman for the American Administration, "the White House has accepted this explanation". According to preliminary agreements, Russian and NATO peacekeepers should have entered Kosovo simultaneously.
The France Press news agency quotes informed sources as saying that talks will continue in Moscow later today between Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and the deputy US Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. The talks are centered on the status and zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo.
Meanwhile Serbs have begun to leave Kosovo. According to Radio Montenegro, hundreds of Serbs, who make their home in the cities of Pec and Kosovska Mitrovica, moved to the Neighboring Montenegro on Friday. The flow of refugees grows larger as more Serbian troops leave Kosovo. The radio report claims that Serbs are leaving Kosovo in panic.
NATO plans to turn Kosovo into an "international protectorate", one that would be actually separated from Serbia. This comes in an article in The New York Times, which has learnt from informed sources in the North Atlantic alliance about the plans for granting this predominantly Albanian-populated Serbian province full independence. The UN Secretary Council resolution on Kosovo says that a political settlement in Kosovo should be reached with due regard for the Rambouillet agreements. The agreements, The New York Times points out, that provide for determining Kosovo's status at an international conference due to be specially called in about three years.
The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan plans to pay an official visit to Russia on June 20th trough 24th. This came in a statement at the UN headquarters in New York by Mr. Annan's official spokesman Fred Eckhard. Kofi Annan plans to visit St.Petersburg and Moscow to meet a number of Russian officials. According to Eckhard, Kofi Annan's visit schedule is correctly agreed on.

June 11

President Boris Yeltsin has stated that Moscow has covered its part of the distance in settling the crisis around Kosovo and it's now NATO's turn to follow suit. He was speaking during a meeting in the Kremlin with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov who informed him about the situation in the Balkans. Addressing journalists after the talk Mr Yeltsin noted that for the time being the Russia-NATO relationship would remain frozen. He pledged to provide urgent help to the Yugoslav people, and stressed that Russia would play an active part in international affairs.
Talks between Russian and US military experts on Kosovo have been suspended because of differences in positions. This was reported by ITAR-TASS quoting a high-ranking Russian Defense Ministry official Leonid Ivashov, who led the Russian delegation at the Moscow round. He said Russia was planning to send up to 10 thousand troops to Kosovo but wanted them to be placed under a separate command and be deployed in the north of the province. The American side opposes this and insists on a single NATO command. NATO has already mapped out the operation and divided Kosovo into sectors where peacekeepers will be brought in. Each sector will have its own NATO commander. Mr Ivashov said that Moscow had rejected a proposal to deploy the Russian contingent in the US sector of Kosovo. The US delegation took a break to inform its leadership and NATO command about the results of the talks.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met in Moscow on Friday to discuss the implementation of the UN Security Council's resolution on Kosovo, and interaction during a peacekeeping operation, especially the status and zone of responsibility of the Russian contingent in Kosovo. No documents were signed. Nevertheless, Mr Talbott voiced readiness to continue the talks on the form of Russia's participation in the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. He confirmed that US Secretary of State Madleine Albright would arrive in Moscow in a few days.
The first unit of Russian peacekeepers on Friday arrived in Yugoslavia from Bosnia for a peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. This has been reported by Itar-Tass quoting diplomatic sources in Belgrade. The Russian news agency RIA says that the advanced force of Russian peacekeepers, numbering between one hundred and several hundred paratroopers, who have just entered Yugoslavia, will be deployed in Kosovo. But in the meantime they will be stationed on the Kosovo-Serbian administrative border. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has announced that preparations are under was for the peacekeepers' deployment in Kosovo, but that no Russian units have yet entered the province.

The UN Security Council has approved a peace plan for Kosovo, 14 delegations, including Russia, voted for it. Only the delegation of China abstained. The document provides for the stationing of international civilian forces and also security forces in Kosovo under the aegis of the United Nations. They will be stationed, at first, for 12 months but their mandate could later be extended if the UN Security Council decides to do that. The international security forces will be deployed with a substantial participation of NATO. Agreement has been reached on the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops in one week's time. The demand has likewise been formulated on ending all offensive operations and on disarming the Kosovo Liberation army and other armed groups of Kosovo Albanians. According to the plan there is to be a temporary administration in Kosovo. The province is to be given broad autonomy while the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia is kept. An all-round approach will be worked out to restore the economy of the region which was affected by the Kosovo crisis. And a pact of stability in South-East Europe will be carried out. Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Sergei Lavrov has said that the approval of the plan for Kosovo returns the Kosovo settlement into a political channel with the UN playing a cardinal role.
Meanwhile, Yugoslav troops are pulling out of Kosovo. According to Reuter's several hundred trucks with soldiers left the administrative center of the province - Pristina - on Thursday and headed northwards. The troops are taking with them anti-aircraft armament, cannon, rifles, machine-guns and other firearms. The same day the first units of the Serbian police left Kosovska Mitrovica.
Russian and American military experts have continued talks in Moscow on the stationing of the peace-keeping contingent in Kosovo. Earlier, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, head of the department for international military co-operation of Russia's Defence ministry said earlier the talks are focused on the role and place of the Russian contingent of the international peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. Russia is ready to send to Kosovo 10.000 servicemen, but only if they are not put under the command of NATO.
The first NATO contingent of international ground forces will move into Kosovo on Saturday. A high-ranking NATO militaryman who asked not to be named said that in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia on yesterday evening. Earlier, the same day the NATO Council, the loading body of the North Atlantic Alliance approved, formally, the sending of ground forces into Kosovo.
Russia`s Prime-Minister Sergei Stepashin received yesterday America`s deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Satisfaction was expressed with the ending of the bombing of Yugoslavia and with the Kosovo settlement being moved onto a political and diplomatic channel. Strobe Talbott pointed out that this "breakthrough to peace" has been made possible through the persistent efforts of Russia and its co-operation with the United States and other "G-8" countries.
US President Bill Clinton has said the Serbs will get no help in restoring the country as long as Slobodan Milosevic remains in power. Speaking on national television yesterday, Bill Clinton stressed that the United States will provide humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia only if its leadership symbolises tolerance and freedom and not repression and terror.
The chairman of the Russian Association for the United Nations Anatoly Torkunov has stressed that there can be no talk about the moral aspect of NATO`s policy of Yugoslavia. He took part in a program of the Voice of Russia. Anatoly Torkunov also stressed that after the results of the war are summed up it will become clear what enormous damage was inflicted on both the Serbs and the Albanians whom NATO was allegedly protecting by the bombing raids. Anatoly Torkunov believes that in Yugoslavia could not be solved by military means. There are other mechanisms and principles for that - talks and the principles of the UN Charter, said Anatoly Torkunov.

June 10

The Russian President Boris Yeltsin has described the suspension of NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia as the first step in the right direction. This comes in a statement circulated by the presidential press service. Yeltsin points out in his statement that the basic objective to be attained now is to secure the ultimate goal, that of fully stopping missile and bomb attacks on Yugoslavia. The Russian President also stresses the need for the revival of the process of a political settlement while leaving intact Yugoslavia's territorial integrity and speedily restoring the Balkan country's economy destroyed in the course of NATO's aggression.
NATO has suspended the bombardment of Yugoslavia. This came in a statement in Brussels on Thursday by the alliance Secretary-General Javier Solana. The decision followed a withdrawal of a major force of the Yugoslav Army from Kosovo early on Thursday. According to the NATO-received data, some 150 trucks with troops have already left the Serbian province. The schedule of troop pool-out was agreed during the talks between the high-ranking Yugoslav and NATO military in Macedonia last night. Now that airstrikes on Yugoslavia have been suspended, the United Nations Security Council can take a voting on a resolution that will authorise a deployment of an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. NATO has been conducting air raids since March 24th, and, according to the Yugoslav data, over 2,000 civilians have been killed and more than 5,000 injured over the period. Yugoslav anti-aircraft defence units have downed 50 NATO planes.
On Thursday the Russian President's special envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin met the deputy US Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Moscow to discuss Russia's participation in an international peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo. Prime-Minister Sergey Stepashin is to receive Mr Talbott on Thursday night. At the same time talks are under way in Moscow of Russian and American military experts. On Wednesday Stepashin said that Russia could send up to 10,000 troops to Yugoslavia but that they should not be placed under NATO's command. Moscow insists that the peacekeeping operation should be conducted under the UN flag.

Yugoslav and NATO negotiators reached last night agreement on the technical aspects of withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo. Belgrade will have 24 hours to start the withdrawal. As soon as the Serbian army and police units start getting out of Kosovo, NATO forces will, under the aegis of the United Nations, be transported to the troubled province. A NATO spokesman says, however, that orders for air raids on Yugoslavia will be reversed only when the Alliance makes sure the withdrawal is indeed taking place.
Yugoslav deputy foreign minister Nebojsa Vujovic said in the Macedonian city of Kumanovo that the Yugoslav army and police units will start getting out of Kosovo today and that the Yugoslavs will meet withdrawal deadlines. Vujovic took part in the Belgrade-NATO negotiations.
A redeployment is reported of the United States army units in Albania. The American servicemen will, according to military observers, be moved to Macedonia to make part of the Kosovo peacekeeping contingent.
The Kosovo Liberation Army has no intention of laying down weapons in the Russian-controlled parts of Kosovo. The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS has quoted a KLA spokesman is saying in Germany that Russia has been siding with the Serbs, which is why the Kosovo Liberation Army refuses to recognize the authority of Russia.
United States bomber planes have bombed, nine times over the past two days, Yugoslav army positions in Kosovo. The Yugoslav forces shut Yugoslavia-Albania border on the Kosovo Liberation Army. A senior officer of the Kosovo-based 3rd Army Lieutenant-Colonel Velemir Konikovats said in Wednesday's appearance on Yugoslav public television that the US airmen resorted to the carpet bombing of the border fortifications and were trying to help the separatists flee across the border. But, Lieutenant-Colonel Konikovats said, the Yugoslav armymen were doing well and not a single attempt by the separatists was a success.
The United Nations Security Council will be expected later in the day to put to vote a resolution on Kosovo. The Security Council is due to open session at, tentatively, midday. Russia says its Ambassador to the United Nations will vote in favor of the resolution if the Allied Forces stop bombing Yugoslavia. China goes further than Russia. It insists on amending the draft resolution. It wants the peacekeeping contingent to enjoy less authority in Kosovo and insists on giving the peacekeepers a no more than 12-month mandate. It will be hard, the Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations said, to pass the unamended draft. A Security Council ad hoc group is considering the Chinese suggestions.
United States Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott has arrived in Moscow to discuss Russian participation in the Kosovo peacekeeping efforts. Agreement on his visit was reached in a telephone conversation between Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton. The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS has quoted diplomatic sources as saying Deputy Secretary Talbott will do his bit for the conclusion of an agreement on the Russian military and civilian efforts for peace in Kosovo.

June 9

President Yeltsin continues to insist there must be an end to NATO's bombing campaign before the Security Council can adopt a peace resolution on Kosovo. He said this after speaking with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov who discussed Kosovo with his colleagues from the G-8 in Cologne in Germany. The gathering drafted a Security Council resolution on measures to resolve the crisis over Kosovo. Boris Yeltsin reiterated his demand to end the airstrikes in telephone conversations with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday. Russia and China, both holders of permanent seats on the Security Council, warn they will be blocking resolutions on Kosovo as long as NATO continues its aggression against Federal Yugoslavia. In a parallel development, NATO and Yugoslav generals have continued talks on a timetable for a Serbian pull-out from Kosovo. They are meeting at a location in Macedonia just across the border from Serbia. The talks resumed late on Tuesday after a break of two days.
NATO last night dramatically intensified its air attacks on Yugoslavia in what looked like an attempt to influence the course of the military negotiations in Macedonia. Over 100 missiles fell on targets in Kosovo, mostly in the towns of Prizren, Stilje and Pec. In Serbia proper, areas near the border with Kosovo came under ferocious air raids. The capital Belgrade enjoyed a night without air raid alerts. The official agency TANJUG says Yugoslavia has lost more than 20 hundred civilian lives in the 11 weeks of the American-led aggression against it. Over 5 thousand people have been injured in the attacks. Yugoslav air defences have brought down some 50 NATO planes.
The Lower House of the Russian Parliament has called for a Kosovo peace formula that preserves the territorial integrity of Federal Yugoslavia and puts the UN in overall charge of any peace-keeping operation in the southern Serbian province. A resolution on Wednesday says Russian troops can only be deployed there on request from Belgrade or as part of a force raised by the United Nations. No Russian soldier will ever take orders from NATO, the resolution says.
Prime Minister Sergey Stepashin says this country can donate 5 to 10 thousand troops for Kosovo peace-keeping and will have to spend 150 million US dollars a year to maintain its military presence in Kosovo. He was speaking before Parliament in advance of a high-level visit from NATO for discussions on Russian participation in international peace-keeping in southern Serbia. This country has been saying Russian troops will not take orders from NATO and any international peace force in Kosovo must answer directly to the UN.

The UN Security Council is expected to take a vote today on the draft resolution for a Kosovo settlement on which agreement was reached by the G-8 Foreign Ministers in Cologne earlier. The discussion of the draft resolution began on Tuesday. Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said after the meeting that Russia would not accept the resolution in the UN Security Council until NATO air strikes at Yugoslavia are stopped. At the same time, the minister added, the draft resolution is not a final one and does not pre-determine the fate of the settlement in Kosovo. He further clarified that under the document, the stationing of the peace-keeping forces in the province would be carried out under the aegis of the United Nations. The document contains Russia's proposal on setting up a post of a special representative of the UN Secretary General to control the implementation of the civilian part of the agreement and coordinate it with the military one. The proposals were made by Russia's President Boris Yeltsin when conducting talks with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. China, which has a veto right, shares Russia's demand that the bombing should be stopped before the voting in the Security Council takes place.
During the 11 weeks of NATO's air campaign in Yugoslavia more than two thousand people were killed and over five thousand wounded. Among the dead are woman, children, old man and hospital patients. This has been reported by Yugoslavia's official TANJUG news agency. It says that under the pretext of preventing a so-called "humanitarian catastrophe" in Kosovo - NATO took action which actually brought about that catastrophe.
America's deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is coming to Moscow to discuss details of Russia's participation in the future peace-keeping operation in Kosovo. US President Bill Clinton said Talbott's possible trip was discussed on Tuesday during his telephone conversation with Russia's President Boris Yeltsin. According to President Clinton, Russian peace-keepers in Kosovo would not be under the direct command of NATO.

June 8

The G-8 foreign ministers coordinated in Cologne on Tuesday the UN draft resolution on Kosovo. Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said that the talks with his counterparts from the Western countries had resulted in the adoption of a compromise document. Russia is ready to support it during the discussions in the UN Secretary Council, but more discussions are necessary. The main thing was to make the end of the war possible, shifting emphasis on the use of political means in the settlement of the Kosovo conflict, emphasized Igor Ivanov. The document notes that Yugoslavia's territorial integrity must remain intact, the Russian delegation spokesman at the talks stressed. The United Nations will monitor absolute control over the peace-keeping operation in Kosovo. The military command of the peace-keeping forces, of which the Russian contingent will also be a part, will be single. The ministers agreed that the resolution of the UN Secretary Council would be adopted only after the start in the withdrawal of the Serb forces from Kosovo and after the end of the NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia. The discussion of the resolution will take place a few days later.
President Boris Yeltsin believes that NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia has seriously aggravated the international political climate. Receiving credentials from foreign ambassadors in the Kremlin on Tuesday, he noted that what is happening in the Balkans is an attempt to impose a dictatorship of force. Russia, he said, strongly opposed this policy, which contradicts the principles of a multi-polar world and the legal interests of the absolute majority of states. Mr Yeltsin stressed that NATO had launched its air bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in breach of international law and the UN Charter. He said that burning problems facing mankind could only be resolved through joint efforts aimed at strengthening, and not destroying, the civilized norms of external policy.
President Yeltsin on Tuesday had a telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin to discuss the situation around Kosovo, and the drafting of a corresponding resolution of the UN Security Council. A statement released by the presidential press-service says the talk was initiated by Boris Yeltsin. The two leaders also discussed some problems concerning bilateral relations.
Russia's and the United States' Presidents, Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton, for the second time today, discussed by telephone the current situation in Yugoslavia. As the deputy head of the Russian President's administration Sergey Prikhodko said on Tuesday, the telephone talk was held at the request of the American side. In yesterday's conversation with Boris Yeltsin Bill Clinton asked the Russian President to gave more instructions to Viktor Chernomyrdin to continue his mediatory activities to settle the Kosovo conflict and also in the field concerning his talks with Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic. The two leaders have also confirmed that the Ahtisaari-Chernomyrdin plan that was worked out last week is forming the basis for both the diplomatic settlement of the Kosovo conflict and the end of the bombing.
China has called on NATO to immediately stop air strikes against Yugoslavia in order to create favourable conditions for a settlement of the conflict. This was announced on Tuesday by a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Commenting on the current visit to Beijing of the Finnish President and European Union mediator on Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari, the spokesman noted that the United Nations must play the leading part in settling the crisis around Kosovo. Mr Ahtisaari is in Beijing to secure China's support during a vote in the UN Security Council on a resolution on Kosovo. China is one of the Council's five permanent members.
In Moscow Defense Minister Igor Sergeev has announced Russia's peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo may number up to 10 thousand servicemen. On Tuesday he discussed the issue with Prime Minister Sergey Stepashin and President Yeltsin's peace mediator on Yugoslavia Victor Chernomyrdin.
Meanwhile, NATO aircraft continue to bomb Yugoslavia. Over the past 24 hours they carried out 222 air-raid sorties. A statement released in Brussels says the main targets of the bombings were Serbian army positions in Kosovo. Last night saw an air raid on the suburbs of Belgrade, the first after a four-day break. Bombs were dropped on the Batajnica airport near Belgrade. Several nearby apartment houses were destroyed during a night attack on an oil refinery in the city of Novi Sad, in which cluster bombs were used. Over a thousand and a half people have been killed and several thousand wounded since the beginning of the strikes.
Belgrade wants to monitor control over the Kosovo refugees returning home. This is what the Yugoslav foreign ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic said in Belgrade earlier today. He has emphasized that it is necessary for the Serb borderguards and customs officers to carefully examine all the refugees. According to Mr. Vujovic, there is danger that terrorists and separatists may penetrate into the Kosovo province under the disguise of the refugees, for the purpose of carrying out ethnic cleansing against the Serb population of the Kosovo province.

Talks of the G-8 countries' foreign ministers to resolve the Yugoslav crisis held near Bonn on Monday will continue today. They are expected to resume at 12.30 Moscow time. According to the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, the ministers have failed so far to agree upon a draft resolution of the United Nations Security Council on a peace settlement in Kosovo. There is information that the work over the draft is not easy but some progress has been reached. Some sources have underderscored that Russia's stance is constructive. The main contradictions between Russia and the Western countries pertain to the issue of an international peace-keeping contingent for Kosovo.
Russian president Boris Yeltsin and his American counterpart Bill Clinton discussed during their telephone conversation on Monday emergency steps to be taken to stop the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. According to a White House official Mike Hammer, Yeltsin and Clinton agreed to instruct their foreign ministers to work for a final peace settlement of the conflict in keeping with the plan accepted by Belgrade. It was worked out by representatives of Russia, the United States and the European Union and approved by the Yugoslav leaders.
The Macedonian TV has reported that in a village of Tabanovci on the Serbian-Macedonian border talks have resumed between military delegations of NATO and Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav delegation is led by the Deputy Foreign Minister Nebojsa Vujovic, the NATO delegation - by American General Doug Fugerson. No results have yet been reported.
On Tuesday night NATO aircraft delivered air strikes on the suburbs of Belgrade. Several powerful explosions resounded in the town of Pancevo at the distance of 15 kilometres from the capital. NATO also bombed the airport in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnitsa and an oil processing plant in the town of Novi Sad. One worker of the plant was killed and several others were injured. Reports from Kosovo say that NATO aircraft attacked on Monday positions of the Yugoslav army on the border with Albania from where militants of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army had been trying to penetrate into the province. Two American bombers dropped several cluster bombs on the Yugoslav defense line in the southern section of the border on the Pastric mountain near Prizren.
Yugoslavia accuses NATO not only of genocide but also of what it described as ecocide against Yugoslavia. This is said in a letter of the Yugoslav Minister on Environment Protection Yagos Zelenovic to the director of the United Nations Environment Programme Klaus Tepfer. According to Mr.Zelenovic, the NATO bombing of the Yugoslav industrial facilities lead to an ecological disaster not only in Yugoslavia but in the whole of Europe. The Yugoslav Minister has warned that consequences can be unpredictable if a NATO bomb hits the Belgrade Institute for Nuclear Research which accommodates a nuclear reactor.

June 7

NATO has officially refuted reports on the possibility of a resumption on Monday of talks with the Yugoslav military on conditions for a Serb troops withdrawal from Kosovo. As it has become known, the two sides will continue contacts by telephone. Earlier in Brussels, the NATO official spokesman Jamie Shea said, talks between Military experts in the Macedonian city of Kumanovo will be continued, although their level will be lowered. As he stressed, the first round of talks did not fail but was broken off. In the morning Washington and London announced that the talks in Kumanovo had failed. The head of the NATO delegation British general Mike Jackson regards the Yugoslav conditions as unacceptable. For example, because of fuel shortages, Belgrade asks for 14 days instead of seven to take its troops out of Kosovo. Besides, Serbs want to have guarantees that the Kosovo Liberation army (KLA) won't resume hostilities. What is complicating talks is NATO attempts to include into the agreement on Serb troops withdrawal a number of issues whose solution is a prerogative of the UN Security.
The Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said that NATO's demands are exceedingly high to Yugoslavia and it continues the bombing. On his arrival to Bonn on Monday, the Russian Foreign Minister underscored that it caused serious concern in Moscow. Russia, Igor Ivanov said, has always reiterated that the hostilities and the ruining of Yugoslavia must be stopped shortly. The Russian Foreign Minister arrived in Bonn to take part in the foreign ministers meeting of G-8 countries which is expected to prepare a draft resolution of the UN Security Council on a peace settlement in Kosovo. According to Igor Ivanov, the meeting will be complicated. The key issues on the agenda and the implementation of the agreements reached in Belgrade and preparation of the would-be resolution of the UN Security Council. Igor Ivanov said it was important that the foreign ministers of G-8 countries could come to understanding on the main aspects of a peace settlement already at the current stage, this would permit to begin the restoration of Yugoslavia shortly.
Moscow believes that the United Nations organization should provide a sole guidance on all military and civil aspects of a peace settlement round Yugoslavia. What is meant is not giving instructions but coordination and supervisions. This has been said in Bonn by Russian high-ranking official who is taking part in the G-8 meeting as a member of the Russian delegation. The Russian diplomat said that the meeting should discuss and make clear all military and technical aspects so that all the parties to the conflict could be satisfied.
NATO aircraft continued to bomb Yugoslavia last night. The regions of the cities of Prizren and Petch in Kosovo were hit especially hard. As a result, a tea factory was destroyed in the outskirts of Petch and a major TV-radio transmitter in central Serbia came under attack. Several missiles went off outside Kurshimlia, a city in the South of Serbia.
China has again called on NATO to put an immediate end to the bombings of Yugoslavia. This, as the Chinese foreign ministry says in today's statement, will create favorable conditions and atmosphere for a political solution to the Kosovo problem.

The talks in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo between the military delegation of Yugoslavia and NATO have proved unsuccessful. The head of the British delegation British General Mike Jackson has said Belgrade has put forward unacceptable proposals that would fail to guarantee the security of either refugees or an international force. But a member of the Yugoslav delegation, deputy Foreign Ministry Nebojsa Vujovic has said, for his part, that his country remains prepared to hold talks and put the maximum of good will into them to reach a technical agreement that would be based on a political agreement. The political agreement was approved during the recent talks in Belgrade between the Russian President`s special envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari with the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The principles underlying this agreement provide for respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, and a deployment of an international security force under the UN auspices in Kosovo. As General Mike Jackson left the talks, he stressed that the North Atlantic alliance would again intensify bombings of Yugoslav territory.
The G-8 Foreign Ministers are meeting for talks in Bonn later today, with Russia to be represented by this country`s Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. The participants will focus on the situation in the Balkans and preparations for a UN Security Council resolution on the basis of the G-8 peace plan for Kosovo. The next G-8 summit is also due to be held in Germany in the middle of this month.
On Sunday NATO delivered 26 missile strikes against Kosovo. It bombed bomb the towns of Kragujevac, Leskovac, Nis and Bor. On Sunday night NATO pounded the capital of Kosovo, Pristina and the town of Prizren. The tunnel near Pristina was destroyed. Several cluster bombs prohibited by international conventions and specially meant for annihilation of people blew up in the Kosovo village of Pirana. The town of Uzice in the east of Serbia was also damaged. Over 74 days of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia some 1300 civilians have been killed and about 5000 injured. NATO has lost over 60 aircraft of various types.
Five people were injured in Kosovo on Saturday, two of them were injured badly. This happened during an attack of the militants of the of the Kosovo Liberation Army on the regular-route bus Belgrade-Pristina. 100,000 Serbs residing in Kosovo fear for their lives if NATO units are deployed in Kosovo since the alliance refuses to give them security guarantees.

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