The Voice of Russia

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May 29

President Boris Yeltsin has confirmed that Russia will not use nuclear weapons against NATO. According to ITAR-TASS report, this comes in a letter of response by the Russian leader to Taya Rukvina, a 10-year girl from Slovenia, who used the global network INTERNET to ask Boris Yeltsin about NATO`s aggression against Yugoslavia. Yeltsin categorically refuted the information that Russia could allegedly use its nuclear arms against NATO. "Believe me, the Russian President stresses in his letter, that I bend every effort to stop the war. Russia will continue to act exclusively by peaceful means".
Yugoslavia accepts the general principles of a settlement in Kosovo that have been worked out by G-8 countries' officials. This came in a communique, made public in Belgrade on Friday following the talks between the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and the Russian President`s special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin. The communique stresses that the United Nations Security Council will have to make a special decision on the issue in compliance with the UN Charter. The G-8 countries' proposals provide among other things, for a return of refugees to Kosovo and a deployment of an international force there to guarantee peace and security and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and other regional countries. Before leaving Belgrade for home Chernomyrdin said that Russia would bend every effort to stop the bombings of Yugoslavia and war, in general. Chernomyrdin has already returned to Moscow, and later this Saturday he will brief the Russian President Boris Yeltsin on the results of his visit, and will also meet Japan`s Foreign Minister, now on a visit to Moscow. Japan forms part of the G-8 along with Russia, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada.
Of the NATO countries France is the first to have responded to Belgrade's positive move. The French presidential press secretary Catherine Colonna has said that one should "take cautiously" the report about Yugoslavia`s agreement to the G-8 proposals. The cautious position of Paris must be due to the fact that NATO countries are Washington's reaction they are going to be guided by.
On Friday NATO aircraft were especially fierce in bombing almost all of Serbian territory, and air-raid warning sirens began to wail in Belgrade right after the Russian mediator Chernomyrdin had left the Yugoslav capital. Heavily bombed was again Kosovo's main city Pristina, and Serbia's second-largest city Novi Sad. Many regions, including the capital city, were again plunged into darkness. NATO has been methodically destroying electric power station and power transmission lines. Friday was the first time that US planes flew their sorties from the neighbouring Hungary. The US Defence Secretary William Cohen has said that more than a thousand combat aircraft are engaged in the operation against Yugoslavia. It's transpired that Cohen has enlarged the list of civilian facilities in Yugoslavia. The number of civilians killed in the bombings has exceeded 6,000 and keeps growing.
The Defence Minister of the people's Republic of China Chi Khaotian has said that the idea behind NATO strikes on Yugoslavia is the aspiration to establish world domination. He was speaking during a meeting with the Belorussian delegation in Beijing. The Defence Minister appealed to all peaceloving nations to unite and cooperate, "given the danger from hegemony and policy from the position of strength."
According to the ITAR-TASS news agency the Russian Defence Ministry recalls all of its officers studying at American military colleges to protest against the continued bombings of Yugoslavia. Some of them have already left the United States, others will fellow them shortly. Earlier Russia froze all of its joint projects with NATO and its representatives from the NATO headquarters in Brussels.

May 28

President Yeltsin's emissary for the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic have met for talks in Belgrade. They are talking over conditions for new efforts to settle the Yugoslav crisis. In Chernomyrdin's view, the International War Crimes Tribunal indictment of Slobodan Milosevic and the incessant bombing of Yugoslavia make the talks difficult. If the North Atlantic Alliance kept doing what it did, Chernomyrdin said, talk of a political accommodation would make no sense. Nonetheless, Chernomyrdin is planning to meet with Finnish President Marti Ahtissaari who is representing the European Union, and United States Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott for further discussion of ways to settle the Yugoslav crisis.
Russia and China have sharply criticized the decision of the Tribunal in the Hague on the judicial persecution of the president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic. Russia's foreign ministry called attention to the fact that the Tribunal came out with its decision just when the talks on settling the Kosovo problem were entering a responsible stage. He also stressed the unobjectivness of the members of the tribunal who ignore the fact of NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. A number of European countries, including Greece, Slovakia and Sweden have expressed apprehension that the decision of the tribunal to try the president and four other top ranking leaders of Yugoslavia could hamper the negotiating process.
It was almost totally dark Thursday night in Belgrade. NATO planes were concentrating fire on power plants, including two transformer substations which provide industrial enterprises, city bus routes and people's homes with electricity. Some neighborhoods were again deprived of water. The cities of Novi Sad and Pancevo also did without electricity. NATO airmen flew more then 400 combat missions over the past 24 hours. They were concentrating fire on civilian targets: a bridge, a radio relay station and food stocks. The NATO aggression against Yugoslavia has claimed more than 1300 human lives.

There was a complete blackout in Belgrade on Thursday night, NATO planes were again hitting missile and bomb strikes at power facilities. That included two sub-stations supplying with electricity industrial enterprises, transport and residential houses. A number of the city districts were again left without water. There was no electricity also in Novi-Sad and Pancevo. On Thursday NATO planes made a record number of sorties. Two persons were killed and six wounded. The target of the attacks were purely civilian sites, including a bridge, a radio transmission station, farm structures and a food storage. The commander of the aggressors forces, American general Wesley Clark claimed that his planes are fixing freely over Yugoslavia. However, according to Yugoslavia's figures, the country's anti-air defence downed more than 50 enemy planes.
Russia's mediator in the Balkans, Victor Charnomyrdin has again left for Belgrade to meet with Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic. Before that he held talks in Moscow with the president of Finland Marti Ahtisaari and US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott. Russia insists that after NATO bombing is halted, the stationing of international peace keeping forces in Kosovo be carried out under the flag of the United Nations and under the command of a neutral country and not NATO as is demanded by the United States. Finland's president is acting as a mediator of the European Union. The chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Gerhard Schroeder said on Thursday that the joint peace-making mission of Ahtisaari and Chernomyrdin could be crowned with success.
Before flying to Belgrade Victor Chernomirdin told newsmen that the decision of the International Tribunal for former Yugoslavia on the juridical persecution of the President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic would not affect Russia's stand in the negotiating process. Milosevic is a lawfully elected president of Yugoslavia. The ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Victor Chernomyrdin has saying Russia has been and will be conducting talks with him. According to the special representative of the Russian president the decision of the Tribunal in the Hague has complicated negotiations on a settlement in the Balkans. It is hard to understand such a decision of the tribunal, said Victor Chernomyrdin, especially when the talks have entered the finishing stage and the sides have approached closely to solving the crisis.
Russia and China have sharply criticized the decision of the Tribunal in the Hague on the juridical persecution of the president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic. Russia's foreign ministry called attention to the fact that the Tribunal came out with its decision just when the talks on settling the Kosovo problem were entering a responsible stage. He also stressed the crying unobjectivness of the members of the tribunal who ignore the fact of NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. A number of European countries, including Greece, Slovakia and Sweden have expressed apprehension that the decision of Of the tribunal to try the president and four other top ranking leaders of Yugoslavia could hamper the negotiating process. The tribunal was set up under the aegis of the United Nations but is controlled by the Americans. The prosecutor Louse Arbour has accused Milosevic of organizing violence over Kosovo Albanians.
An international progress organization with headquarters in Vienna is for having the International Court in the Hague examine the fact of NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. This was made known by the leader of the organization Hans Kehler. He described NATO's bombing of power facilities and knocking out water-supply systems in Yugoslavia as a form of terrorism against the civilian population.
Kosovo Albanians will come first if NATO begins a ground invasion into Kosovo. NATO forces will be second. This has been reported by a correspondent of the ITAR-TASS news agency who visited one of the camps of the Kosovo Albanians in Albania. It is believed the invasion could begin in September. The delivery of arms to the so called "Liberation army of Kosovo" is said to have been considerably enlarged.
Sixty seven participants of a peace march held near NATO's headquarters in Brussels on Thursday were arrested by the police. The Russian news agency "Novosti" was told that by one of the leaders of the march Paul Heivetter. The march started out near the building of the International Court in the Hague on May l6th. And one Wednesday the marchers, that is more than 400 persons from 30 countries arrived in Brussels. They intended to hold a protest action in front of the building of the alliance's headquarters against nuclear weapons and the war in Yugoslavia. However all manifestations in front of the NATO headquarters have been banned by the burgomaster of Brussels since the war in Yugoslavia's started.

May 27

If the situation in the Balkans developed negatively, Russia will have to suspend its participation in the talks on a settlement of the crisis around Yugoslavia. This is the position of the Russian President Boris Yeltsin as presented by his press secretary Dmitry Yakushkin at briefing in Moscow. Yakushkin described this stand as ''an adequate political and diplomatic reaction to the developments in the Balkans". On the situation in the region Yakushkin stressed that what was going there was a flagrant violation of all international law provisions. The distraction of one of the oldest European state is under way in central Europe, and this, Yakushkin stressed, creates an extremely dangerous precedent for international relations. According to him, the word community will find itself in a deadlock if it recognizes and approves the use of force to settle the Balkan-like crises. When elaborating on the course of the Russia-mediated talks to reach a settlement around Yugoslavia, Yakushkin described them as "very complicated". On Thursday the Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin discussed the issue by telephone. It has transpired that the working visit Chernomyrdin planned to pay to Belgrade on Thursday has been put off until Friday.
Last night NATO aircraft flew the greatest number of sorties since the time aggression was launched against Yugoslavia, and bombed TV- and radio-relay stations, water- and power supply systems and railway lines. 6 civilians were killed in the raids. Three of them - in blocks of flats 30 kilometers South of Belgrade, and the other three - in Kosovo. Oil tanks were against bombed in the environs of Belgrade, and also in many other cities, for instance, in Kralievo, Sjenica and Batajnica. Traffic was disrupted on the railway between Belgrade and the North of Serbia. According to the "Washington Post" newspaper, NATO has added telephone communication centers and computer networks in Yugoslavia to the bombing targets list. The number of civilians killed in Yugoslavia since aggression was launched against the Balkan country was exceeded 1,300, Yugoslav antiaircraft defenses have downed some 50 NATO planes.
NATO bombings of Yugoslavia are fraught with an ecological disaster for a whole of Europe. This has come in a warning by the head of the Russian military ecological security service Major-General Boris Alexeyev. Speaking in an interview with the ITAR-TASS news agency he pointed out the poisonous compounds that formed themselves as a result of distraction of chemical factories and fires at oil depots in Yugoslavia, have already reach the borders of Rumania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Also under way is radioactive contamination of vast areas because NATO uses bombs and missiles stuffed with spend uranium. Bombs have uranium cores in them to make them heavier and increase their piercing effect. When exploding such bombs turn into radioactive dust that poisons air, soil, and water.
The Russian President's envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin has urged NATO to stop bombing of Yugoslavia or else he would recommend that Boris Yeltsin Should suspend Russia's participation in the negotiations process. Speaking in an interview with "Washington Post", Chernomyrdin said, that he would also recommend that Russia should out short its cooperation with the United States and Western Europe in defense technologies, postpone the ratification of the Russian-American Start-2 treaty and use its right of veto during the discussion of a United Nations resolution of Yugoslavia. Since early this week Chernomyrdin has been engaged in talks on Kosovo in Moscow with the deputy US Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and the spokesman for the European Union, President Martty Achtisaari of Finland. The United States insists that NATO should make the backbone of a future peacekeeping force in Kosovo. While Yugoslavia and Russia feel that this force should not include the countries that are involved in the aggressive operation against Yugoslavia.
The Hague-based War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has issued an indictment for committing war crimes against the President of the United Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic. The chief prosecutor for the Tribunal Louise Arbour has said that a warrant has also been issued to arrest the Yugoslav leader. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said the indictment is a purely move, one that undermines the Hague Tribunal's authority. The Russian Foreign Ministry feels that the move will only serve to create more obstacles in the way to reach a settlement in the Balkans.

On Wednesday evening and last night NATO aircraft bombed the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade and regions adjacent to it in the south and the west. According to the Bi TV studio, bomb explosions killed three people and injured several others in Ralie, 30 kilometers to the south of the capital. NATO aircraft attacked the towns of Rakovitsa and Mladenovets and the regions of Tsukaritsa and Maksi. In Rakovitsa two rockets hit the plant of aircraft engines completely destroying it. Since the beginning of the NATO bombing over 1300 people died in Yugoslavia and another 6,000 were injured.
Russia continuously works to stop the NATO military operation against Yugoslavia. This was said by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov after his meeting with the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Stockholm on Wednesday. According to him, the NATO operation against Yugoslavia is illegal, it runs counter to the United Nations Charter and principles of international law.
A deputy to the United Nations Secretary General, Sergio de Mello, has described as disastrous the situation in Yugoslavia after NATO's air strikes. He headed a delegation of United Nations humanitarian organisations, which completed its visit to Yugoslavia on Wednesday. This was the first representative UN delegation that visited the country since the beginning of the bombing. The deputy to the UN Secretary-General said during news conference in Belgrade that the members of the delegation saw for themselves that the NATO bombing caused devastation and immense deterioration of the population's living standards. He said that among the problems was that of unemployment that reached a great dimension and the malfunctioning of transport and electro- and water supply systems.
The international Tribunal on former Yugoslavia has prepared charges against the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. He is accused of war crimes. Reports from the Haague say that this will be officially announced today. It has also been reported that a warrant for the arrest of the Yugoslav leader has already been signed. The Russian permanent representative in the United Nations Sergey Lavrov has said that charges against president Milosevic can seriously interfere with the efforts to settle the Kosovo crisis.
An international peace mission consisting of representatives from Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches will shortly visit Yugoslavia. The head of the Russian Orthodox church the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Alexy the Second announced this on Wednesday. He put forward this idea during his recent visit to Belgrade. The mission consisting of priests from the three churches was established in Vianna just few days ago.

May 26

NATO air force has again pounded civilian targets across Yugoslavia in one of its fiercest night of bombardments so far. Water systems suffered great damage, as did television transmitters near 7 cities including the capital Belgrade and Novi Said in northern Serbia. Numerous missiles hit civilian installations and residential areas in Uzice in central Serbia and the village of Bujanovac in the south. In Djakovica in the province of Kosovo, all water taps are running dry. Hospitals have been forced to stop providing emergency services for lack of water and power supply. According to the agency TANJUG, two more NATO planes have been brought down. The NATO headquarters in Brussels would not confirm the report in a familiar pattern of denying obvious truths. Yugoslav gunners have shot down a total of over 50 enemy planes since the start of the American-led aggression against their country on March 24th. The air raids have killed over 12 hundred people in Yugoslavia.
This country rules out any partition of Kosovo and continues to insist that the province must remain part of Federal Yugoslavia. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said this after emerging from several hours of talks with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and the Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari in Moscow on Wednesday. He flew to Stockholm shortly afterwards to discuss the Kosovo crisis with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Mr. Talbott and Mr. Ahtisaari stayed in Moscow and continued to seek a way out of the Kosovo crisis together with the Russian presidential mediator for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin. Mr. Chernomyrdin is flying to Belgrade tomorrow to deliver fresh initiatives on Kosovo to the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The main division among the interested sides is over the composition of a future peace force in Kosovo. The US wants it to be led by NATO. Russia and Yugoslavia would only accept participation by nations that are staying out of the American-led bombing campaign.
President Yeltsin and his South Korean counterpart Kim Tae Chung are planning to discuss bilateral relations including trade and tension spots like the Balkans and the Korean Peninsula when they hold a summit in Moscow on Friday. The South Korean President is expected in Moscow on Thursday. Diplomatic sources say he will ask this country for assistance in the search for a lasting settlement between the two Koreas.
Greece has called again for a pause in NATO's bombardments of Yugoslavia in order to pave way for peace talks. The proposal comes from Foreign Minister Georgios Papandreu. Athens has repeatedly criticized the bombing campaign and called for a negotiated settlement.
NATO's military action against Yugoslavia has a negative impact on the economic situation in Eastern Europe. The announcement was made at the OSCE Economic Forum which opened in Prague on Tuesday. More than 50 countries are taking part. On Wednesday West European currency exchanges saw another fall in the value of the euro which is now trading at 1.05 dollars. As it was introduced last January the euro traded at 1.7 dollars.

NATO warplanes last night hit hard at civilian sites in the different parts of Yugoslavia. The main target in the country's second largest city of Novi-Sad was again the local TV center. According to the BETA news agency, at least one missile hit the building and set it on fire. The Yugoslav air defenses met the NATO planes with intensive fire. More than 40 missiles and bombs were dropped on the Kosovo province. The TANJUG news agency says that a water supply system in Jakovic was seriously damages. And near the city of Prisren bombs hit the administrative building of a wine-factory.
The destruction of power facilities poses a threat to thousands of gravely ill patients whose lives depend on the constant supply of electricity and water. Health minister of Serbia Leposava Milicevic has stated this. She stressed that since the aggression against Yugoslavia started NATO warplanes dropped 10.000 bombs, which hit, among other sites, 15 health facilities. Among them Health House in Alexinaz, hospitals in Pancevo and Valevo, and a clinical center in Belgrade.
A United Nations broad-based delegation for humanitarian problems which ends a ten-day visit to Yugoslavia today, said it is perplexed by NATO's bombing of civilian sites in the center of the city of Uzhitsa. The delegation likewise pointed out that continuing raids have done enormous damage to the nature reserve district of Zlatibor, in the south of Serbia.
In Paris, Director-General of UNESCO Federico Mayor has stressed that the use of force in Kosovo can bring no results and it is necessary to put an end to that war and all its horrors. He also said that the use of force leads only to greater sufferings, and settles no problems.
Russia's foreign minister Igor Ivanov meets in Moscow today with US deputy secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Moscow and Washington intend to make another attempt to find a compromise solution of the crisis around Yugoslavia. Talbott has expressed hope that the talks will be successful. He admitted, however, that NATO air strikes at Yugoslavia have created tension in relations between Russia and the United States. Later the same day Strobe Talbott will discuss ways of a political settlement of the Kosovo crisis with the special representative of the Russian president for the Balkans, Victor Chernomyrdin and with Finland's president Martti Ahtisaari. Earlier, Victor Chernomyrdin told newsmen that the primary result of the talks should be ending the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO warplanes, or at least there should be a pause.
Five trucks with humanitarian aid from Russia, Switzerland and Greece were handed on Tuesday to the Red Cross committee in the Serbian province of Kosovo. This time they brought food, means of personal and similar commodities. Under the Russia-Switzerland-Greece action Focus humanitarian aid is sent to different regions of Yugoslavia every week.

May 25

President Yeltsin has had a telephone conversation with the visiting Indian Foreign Minister Dzhasvant Singkh. According to the presidential press service, the two leaders discussed bilateral relations and urgent international problems. The conversation showed that Russia and India see eye to eye on the crisis in Yugoslavia and its influence on the entire system of international relations. Mr.Yeltsin and Mr.Singkh pointed out the need to stop immediately NATO's air campaign against the sovereign European nation and begin to resolve the conflict by negotiation.
NATO forces have carried out another night of air strikes against Yugoslavia targeting civilian facilities. The strikes hitting Belgrade's power supply system put out of operation many bakeries and disrupted the work of medical centres. Several rockets hit Batainitsa airfield and other targets near the capital. Kosovo came under intensive fire with bombs exploding near the city of Istok. More than 100 prisoners are reported to have been killed in the city's jail earlier. Powerful explosions were heard in Uzhitsa airport in the west of Serbia. Over one thousand NATO planes are taking part in the raids. The bombing campaign has claimed 1300 civilian lives and left more than 6 thousand people wounded.
Russia's relations with NATO are frozen and can never be what they used to before the aggression against Yugoslavia. Russia has drawn serious conclusions from the conflict in the Balkans and this will influence its concept of national security and military doctrine. The announcement was made by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in an interview with the Spanish ABC newspaper. About the conflict as such, Mr.Ivanov said it could be resolved either by negotiation, a scenario favoured by Russia, or by war which is backed by NATO militarists. These gentlemen, he said, are pushing the North Atlantic alliance toward the military path in an attempt to prove that they are right in their stubborn determination to destroy Yugoslavia.
The Turkish newspaper Radical report that 54 US fighter-bombers F-15 and F-16 will be deployed at Turkish air bases at the end of the week. Meanwhile, the United States have sent an additional 20 warplanes to Hungary for NATO military operations against Yugoslavia.
Romanian ecologists believe that acid rains that struck western Romania resulted from NATO bombings. The content of heavy metals in the Danube is tens of times above normal. The acid rains burnt thousands of hectares of crop areas and fruit plantations, and led to the mass extinction of bees. The Romanian authorities forecast a progressing degradation of environment along the Danube, and a continuing exposure of people's health to natural pollutants.

NATO forces have again been firing and dropping bombs on Yugoslavia. Yugoslav media editions say two missiles hit the ministry of internal affairs in Belgrade. Batainitsa airdrome and some other targets near Belgrade came under fire. Targets in Serbia's province of Kosovo came under heavy fire, with as many as 22 bombs going off near the city of Prisren and 6 near the city of Istok where about 100 people were killed in a jail building when it came under an earlier attack. Four missiles hit the city of G1ogovats, in central Kosovo. Powerful explosions shook the airport of the west Serbian city of Uzhitse. The big cities of Novy Sad and Nis came under fire Monday evening. An oil refinery and a power plant suffered damage. The North Atlantic Alliance has committed to action about 1000 war planes. As many as 1300 civilians have lost their lives sad more than 6,000 have been injured since March,24t when the Alliance launched war action against Yugoslavia.
Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov believes there exist condition for a political settlement in the Balkans, yet for this, all the sides concerned will have to pool efforts. He was speaking to reporters in Moscow. Replying to a question about western press reports alleging that the United States plans to overtopple Yugoslav president Miloshevic, the Russian foreign minister said he does not possess such information, yet, such moves would be illegal from any point of view.
Damage suffered by Yugoslavia owing to the NATO attacks is put at more than 100 billions dollars. Civilian death toll is growing, and a growing number of Kosovar Albanians are losing their lives. More than one million people have fled their homes. President Yeltsin's emissary for the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin, who told all that to media people in Moscow, is planning to meet tomorrow with Finish President Marti Ahtisaari and United States deputy secretary of State Strobe Talbott. The three men will discuss the withdrawal of Serbian troops from Kosovo and the organization of a Kosovo peace contingent. Chernomyrdin is leaving Moscow Thursday for Belgrade where he will be expected to meet with Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloshevic.
Yugoslav Ambassador to the United Nations Vladislav Jovanovic has told newsmen in New York that Belgrade was ready to discuss a Kosovo accommodation formula of the world's most advanced nations. The Kosovo accommodation formula calls for the deployment of an international security force in Kosovo , the repatriation of the Kosovar refugees and the establishment of interim self government bodies in Kosovo.
The Russian government information agency says more than 1,8 million dollars has been earmarked for the purchase and delivery of humanitarian aid and a mobile hospital to Yugoslavia and Macedonia. The Russian humanitarian aid is meant for the Yugoslav refugees.

May 24

Most of Serbia is without electricity after NATO air force dealt more crippling blows at the country's power system last night. The two-and-a-half-million population of the capital Belgrade enjoyed only 3 hours of full power supply on Sunday. Many areas are without running water for lack of electricity to run pumps. Repair teams are working around the clock to contain the damage, but their effort appears grossly inadequate in the face of destruction around. NATO spokesman Jamie Shea meanwhile has boasted successes in the two-month-old bombing campaign. Yugoslavia, he said, has lost all its oil depots and all major roads leading to the province of Kosovo in southern Serbia. Only one of its bridges across the river Danube is still intact. It spans the river within the bounds of the capital Belgrade. Yugoslavia says it has suffered over 6 thousand casualties in the American-led aggression against it.
Yugoslav gunners brought down two more NATO planes over the weekend. One is a reconnaissance drone. The latest groundings bring to over 50 the number of NATO planes shot down since the start of the air campaign on March 24th.
This country wants the closest possible cooperation with India and China in efforts to find a peaceful way out of the crisis over Kosovo. The Russian presidential mediator for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin said this after emerging from talks with the Indian Foreign Minister Jasvant Singh in Moscow on Monday. He said Kosovo needs peace but NATO must call of its bombing campaign before any meaningful peace talks can be resumed. Chernomyrdin will continue to discuss Kosovo with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and the Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari at a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday.
The agency ITAR-TASS quotes British diplomats as saying US President Bill Clinton is considering plans to move ground troops to Kosovo after three more weeks of intensive bombardments of targets in Federal Yugoslavia.
British defense secretary George Robertson said in a BBC interview on Monday that NATO troops will accompany Kosovo refugees as they return home to Kosovo, regardless of whether Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic agrees or not. We are convinced they must return home, and we'll do everything to ensure their safety, Mr. Robertson stressed.
Dutch foreign minister Iosias van Artsen has called for a pause in the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia. This, he believes, would clear the way for a Security Council resolution on settlement of the Kosovo crisis.
None of the goals announced by the US leadership ahead of the military operation against Yugoslavia has been reached. The conclusion was made by the American non-government research organization "Heritage Foundation". According to it, as a result of the NATO bombings, more than 750 thousand refugees have left Yugoslavia, the combat potential of the Yugoslav army remains at a high level, while president Milosevic has strengthened his positions. "Heritage Foundation" experts also note that the administration of the US president cannot provide clear answers to such questions as how the situation in the Balkans will develop, how long the bombings will continue, whether a ground operation in Kosovo is expedient and how the West will build relations with the legitimate president of Yugoslavia.

Last night NATO aircraft again delivered strikes on Yugoslavia, with the basic target being the national power supply system. According to Yugoslav news media, the electric power station Kostolac, 60 kilometres East of Belgrade, and also electric power station near the cities Novi Sad and Pozarovac, were damaged. Missiles were fired at power supply facilities in Yugoslavia and in the city Nis, in the South-East of the country. Belgrade Novi Sad, Kragujevac and some other Serbian cities ware again plunged into darkness. Blocks of flat were out of water supply and telephone communication. On Sunday night over 20 missiles exploded in Kosovo's administrative centre Pristina and the city environs. The member of the Serbian Parliament Dragan Milunovic died there on Saturday night. 0ver 6,000 people have been killed or wounded in Yugoslavia over the two months of NATO aggression against the Balkan country.
The so called Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA has suffered another sensitive defeat. According to a Serbian television report national security forces smashed the headquarters of the KLA 123d brigade in the town Suva Reka, to the East-West of Pristina on Sunday. While on Saturday Albanian fighters were knocked out from the Podujevo region, in Northern Kosovo. A large amount of area of arms and military hardware were seized.
The Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has accused NATO of attempts to foil Moscow's efforts to reach a peaceful settlement of the Kosovo conflict. Speaking in an interview with the US TV channel CNN he said that each time that the Russian President`s envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin visited Belgrade in the frame work of his mission, NATO stepped up its bombing raids on Yugoslavia. Russia has repeatedly stressed that NATO should stop bombing Yugoslavia before peace talks on Kosovo could get under way.
The crisis around Yugoslavia threatens the process of nuclear arms reduction and the efforts to exercise international arms control. This comes in an article carried by Sunday`s issue of the Washington Post newspaper. The NATO military operations against Yugoslavia have worsened American-Russian relation, and the worst-hit turns out to be the SALT-2 treaty, signed back in 1993. The newspaper feels that the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty may also end up in a deadlock. What also may be lost, the "Washington Post" points out, is the provisional joint centre for warning about accidental missile launches.
The US President Bill Clinton has authorized the American CIA to go on with a secret plan for sabotage against Belgrade. Some high-ranking officials of American intelligence services have told the weekly "Newsweek" that in compliance with the plan the SIA will train Kosovo Albanians sabotage and terrorist methods. The United States is expected to wage what`s termed a "computer war" to gain illegal access to accounts of Yugoslav leaders in foreign banks.

May 23

NATO planes on Saturday launched the heaviest airstrikes on Yugoslavia so far flying a record 684 sorties into Yugoslav territory and dropping a number of graphite bombs used to short circuit power lines and plunging many cities into darkness. 14 workers were injured and their transformer substation south of Belgrade came under attack. In Kosovo a local prison in the town of Istok was struck again leaving at least 20 inmates dead and nearly 50 others injured. The NATO bombs also destroyed and damaged a number of bridges and fuel storage facility in Belgrade where allied pilots have in the past few days also hit by mistake nearly one dozen foreign embassies. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday lambasted the bombings, which had also damaged the Indian diplomatic mission in Belgrade, and demanded an immediate end to the airstrikes. On May 7th a NATO warplane fired a number of rockets at the Chinese embassy compound killing three and injuring more than a dozen people. More than 6,000 peaceful civilians has already been killed and injured in NATO's nearly two-months old air campaign and more than 50 allied warplanes have been shot down by the Yugoslav air defenses.
NATO planes bombed the command post of the separatist Kosovo Liberation army during a raid on Yugoslavia on Thursday. This was 10 kilometers from the border with Albania. According to well-informed sources, seven of the army fighters were killed and many wounded. A representative of NATO's headquarters Jamie Shea admitted the fact on Saturday, and said the pilots were mistaken. They believed they were bombing the positions of the Yugoslav army.
NATO representatives on Saturday confirmed Belgrade's report that the American attack helicopter gunship "Apache" which crashed 75 kilometers from Tirana on May 5th was hit by Serbian anti-aircraft units. The two pilots died. This has been reported by the German newspaper "Welt am Sonntag". Earlier, NATO experts insisted that the helicopter caught fire and crashed during a training flight. The "Apache" helicopter gunships meant to be used in a NATO operation against Yugoslavia - have been stationed in Albania.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused NATO of actions unauthorized by the United Nations, which resulted in a humanitarian disaster in Europe unprecedented since World War II. The North Atlantic alliance, the statement says, has been trying to establish control of relief supplies to Yugoslavia and doesn't bother to guarantee their safe passage. NATO-prepared security recommendations, the ministry says, reveal an intention to avoid responsibility for the increasingly frequent misses which result in the bombing of schools, hospitals and refugee columns.
India has called for ending NATO bombing of Yugoslavia at once, and sending United Nations peacekeeping contingents there. India's head of government Atal Behari Vajpayee told newsmen on Saturday that Delhi will also raise in the United Nations the question about NATO's air strike at India's embassy in Belgrade last Thursday. He demanded that NATO investigate the incident and punish those responsible. The Prime Minister likewise expressed readiness to have talks with other countries condemning NATO strikes at Yugoslavia.
Greece has called for a two-day break in NATO's airstrikes on Yugoslavia to give Belgrade a chance to join in the international efforts to peacefully resolve the Kosovo crisis. Foreign Minister Georgios Papandreau made this statement on Saturday shortly before flying to Beijing for talks with the Chinese leaders. Next week he will be in Washington to discuss ways of peacefully ending the conflict. Of all the NATO member states, Greece has been the most critical of NATO's nearly two months-old air campaign and has warned it will not be militarily involved in Yugoslavia. On Friday Greece denied Turkish warplanes a safe passage through its airspace on their way to bomb targets in Federal Yugoslavia.

May 22

Last night NATO aircraft carried out three air raids en Belgrade. Bombs hit a city electric power station tanks of the oil company. "Jugopetrol" and were also dropped on near-by areas. NATO again used so called graphite bombs that short-circuit power transmission line. The bomb attack caused disruption in power supplies in Belgrade and other cities. Meanwhile in Brussels the NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said that NATO would go on bombing Belgrade, even though bombing raids had damaged the embassies of Sweden, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, India and another five countries. Earlier this month a NATO bomb hit the Chinese embassy and killed there three and injured some 20 people. According to the US State department, some 10,000 bombs and missiles have been used in air raids on Yugoslavia since aggression was launched on March 24th. But despite the claims of the US propaganda machine, it's mainly civilian targets that come under attack. This past week bombs have damaged the delivery room of a Belgrade clinic and destroyed more than 10 blocks of flats in a number of cities. The overall number of casualties exceeds 6,000. On Friday Yugoslav antiaircraft defences brought down an unmanned NATO reconnaissance plane. And throughout the period of aggression NATO has lost some 50 planes in Yugoslavia.
On Friday, Nay 21st, the Russian President's special envoy in charge of a Balkan settlement Viktor Chernomyrdin had talks in Moscow with the Finish President Martti Achtisaari and deputy US Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Talks will be continued in the Russian capital next week. Also on Friday in Moscow the Russian Foreign Minister lgor lvanov met the UN Secretary-General's special envoy to the Balkans Carl Bildt and Greek Foreign Minister Georgios Papaadreu. Meanwhile in Bonn Russian and other G-8 countries' officials met Friday to discuss a plan for a peaceful settlement in Kosovo. They are going to put forward the plan as a future resolution of the United Nations Security Council. The plan provides, among other things, for deploying an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. The Yugoslav Foreign Ministry points out that the political process to settle the Kosovo crisis is gaining momentum, but to make it successful NATO should stop its bombing raids.
Despite the efforts made to find a political solution to the Balkan crisis, Washington continues to rely on crude force. On Friday President Bill Clinton signed an order to allocate another 15 billion dollars for military needs basically for financing the aggressive operation against Yugoslavia. It is held that part of the sum will be used to form fighting groups in Albania of mobilized, mostly forcibly, Kosovo Albanian refugees, and also of mercenaries. These are trained and armed by NATO. According to a Pentagon spokesman, the strength of the groups, due to be the first to start fighting in a ground operation in Kosovo, has reached 20,000.
NATO's bombings of Yugoslavia may trigger off a large-scale ecological disaster any moment. The point was made in a recent interview with the RIA-Novosti news agency by the chairperson of the Russian Parliamentary Committee on Ecology Tamara Zlotnikova. According to her, airstrikes on oil refineries cause powerful discharges of oil products into near-by water reservoirs. Released in the process is dioxin, a substance that's several hundred times more toxic than war chemicals. The countries neighbouring on Yugoslavia are now under threat of dioxin contamination.

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