Russian Commander Expands Their Army's Secret Plan to Enter Kosovo in 1999

On the night of June 12th 1999, a battalion of Russian paratroopers in Republika Srpska, Bosnia, leave suddenly towards Kosovo, taking control of Pristina Airport in Slatina.

For NATO troops planning to use Pristina Airport, the Russian forces' secret entrance was a big surprise.

The US, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy were not planning to allow Russian presence in Kosovo.

Such entry of Russians into Kosovo has nearly sparked armed conflicts between British forces and Russian soldiers. This was averted at the last moment, since KFOR's first commander in Kosovo, Mike Jackson, was willing to give orders that the Russians be attacked militarily.

At one point Jackson had said the attack on Russian forces meant the launch of World War III.

The commander of Russian forces who had entered Kosovo, Georgij Shpak, has talked to Russian media about how the plan has gone to invade Pristina Airport.

At the beginning of May 1999, Russia's Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces, General Anatoly Kwasnin, invited me to his office and said: <x1 emergency>” In his office, he ordered me immediately to travel to the Bosnian town of Ugljevik, where the Air Force Brigade headquarters were, and to prepare everything for the capture of the strategic airport in Kosovo, which is the only track there that can accept any aircraft, including bombers and other heavy military transporters. Who controls Slavic, controls all of Kosovo. Kwasnin has said that the timing of receiving the airport is not defined, so my fighters will act on his command”, he has said.

He adds: “Preparations for performing tasks were made in full broom”.

As Schpak points out, Kwasnin was not the initiator of the action itself.

The Supreme Commander knew about this, and then the president was Boris Jelcen. Then, “potential enemies” in the West were pushing us in all directions and they virtually stopped relying on Russia on international affairs. In that sense, in all possible ways, we had left the world's hot spot at the time of the former Yugoslavia. Americans, British, French, Germans and Italians decided to rule out Russia's participation in a peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. Of course, under President Jelzin's lead, there were people who advised him to hit and remind him that the Russians even further had gunpowders on their own”, Schpak said afterwards.

He has clarified how they are prepared for entry into Kosovo.

Russian parachutists shouldn't be prepared for war. They're always prepared for it. Everyone was prepared, just sharing the tasks and logistics implementation of the action. Once in Ugljevik, I began actively working with Colonel Nikolay Ignjatov, commander of the Brigade. We've talked about all possibilities of performing task”.

He added that they were not intimidated by wiretapping.

We weren't scared, we knew all the conversations were recorded. There was a part of the U.S. Army at the stadium's stadium. Their official function has been communication and co-ordination with Russian command, but in reality, it was a” spying, the former commander of Russian forces who had entered Kosovo has said.

He has later clarified why they had informed Serbs of the action.

The paramilitary units have had to cross most of the road to Kosovo by gear, so it has been impossible to act without co-ordination. It must be said that our Serbian brothers have organised the green corridor on their territory for our column. Also, their military police cars have cleared the way so that our heavy vehicles can safely cross”.

According to him, there has been no plan B if the armed clash with NATO troops begins.

“Plani B did not exist. Our bankers have gone to Pristina to win or die. But the Russian military commanders and I, we've had strong faith that Americans, French, Germans can be good soldiers, but they don't have the fighting quality like us. Plus, the peaceful operation has been international, so NATO generals would have wasted much time in co-ordinating the” action, he said.

Russian troops later entered under KFOR command and remained in Kosovo until 2003. /Ballkan. /