Russia’s 1999 Pristina operation ’stopped the US from pushing Europe to major conflict’

“The [Slatina] airport 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,” Leonid Ivashov, former head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s main department of international military cooperation, told Sputnik. Ivashov took part in the 1999 talks on the Kosovo settlement, adding to a decision by the head of the Russian paratroopers to move to the Slatina airport. The march had “a geopolitical scale“ as “NATO moved Europe to a 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. He recalled that the Russian paratroopers successfully entering the 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 the Slatina airport, but to no avail,” Ivashov noted. 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.”