Putin: "You don't like to remember, but you carried out bloody operation against Belgrade without UN approval"

Photo: Tanjug/AP

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin addressed the public in Russia before the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, and during his address he stated the reasons for the intervention. Among other things, he mentioned NATO's aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), which was carried out in 1999 without the approval of the UN Security Council.

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In his special address to Russian citizens, Putin said of the bombing:

"First, they conducted a bloody military operation against Belgrade without any approval by the UN Security Council. They used aviation, missiles directly in the middle of Europe. The continuous bombing of peaceful cities and vital infrastructure lasted for weeks. We must be reminding of those facts, although some Western colleagues do not like to remember those events, and when we talk about that, they do not refer to the norms of international law, but to circumstances, which they interpret as they see fit," said the President of Russia.

Then came the turn of Iraq, Libya, Syria, which led to a humanitarian catastrophe and terrible destruction, Putin said.

"The illegitimate use of military force against Libya, the perversion of all UN Security Council decisions regarding the Libyan issue, has led to the complete destruction of the country, and created a huge hotbed of international terrorism as the country sank into a humanitarian catastrophe.

They were preparing a similar fate for Syria. The combat actions of the Western coalition in the territory of that country without the consent of the Syrian government or the permission of the UN Security Council are nothing but aggression, an intervention.

However, the invasion of Iraq certainly occupies a special place in that series, also carried out without any legal grounds. As an excuse, they used the allegedly reliable information available to the United States that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. And then it turned out there were no chemical weapons in Iraq. Unbelievable, stunning, but facts remain facts. They lied at the highest state level and from the highest UN rostrum. The results are huge casualties, destruction, an incredible escalation of terrorism," Putin said.

(Telegraf.rs)