Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the official Kremlin has tried to create its own narrative to legitimize the intervention in Ukraine. Often, both Russian officials and media close to the government there have referred and continue to refer to the Kosovo war to create parallels with the aggression in Ukraine.
Disinformation parallels include comparisons between the Bucha and Recak massacres, organ transplantation and the "Yellow House", the case of Crimea and Kosovo, the participation of groups from Kosovo in the Ukrainian war, etc.
Stopping a genocide like in Kosovo
As Russian tanks and troops rolled into Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s as justification for invading a sovereign European country. Putin has repeatedly drawn parallels between the Serbia-Kosovo conflict and the annexed Crimean peninsula, as well as areas of eastern Ukraine also annexed by Russia.
The Russian president is particularly focused on NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999 and Western support for Kosovo's independence in 2008. Putin claims that both of these things set a precedent against international law and order and that, in his view, gave him a justification to invade Ukraine.
Just as NATO claimed in 1999 that it was preventing an imminent genocide in Kosovo with its 78-day bombing of Serbia, it also wanted to end a “genocide” against the Russian minority there by attacking Ukraine. In Kosovo, some 800,000 Albanians were expelled by the Serbian army and paramilitaries to neighboring countries (mostly Albania), as international courts later repeatedly determined. The alleged genocide in Ukraine’s Donbass and Luhansk, on the other hand, remained unproven. (here)
Three days before the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized independence of two separatist regions in Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk, better known as Donbas.
In an attempt to justify this decision, Putin drew a parallel with Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.
After a wave of protests, pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from power in 2014. That same year, Russia annexed Crimea and began supporting the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas.
After pro-Russian separatists took control of Donbas and declared independence in May 2014, Moscow has repeatedly claimed that Ukrainian authorities have mistreated the Russian-speaking population there, although such claims have not been supported by evidence. Apart from Russia, no other country has recognized the independence of Donbas.
Meanwhile, Kosovo declared independence in 2008. This act of declaration was found to be legal by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), confirming that it did not violate the norms of international law. The independence was also recognized by over 100 countries around the world.
Annexation of Crimea and Kosovo
Russian President Vladimir Putin draws a parallel between the annexation of Crimea and the independence of Kosovo from Serbia in the context of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Putin’s arguments, repeated during the annexation of Crimea in 2014, follow this line: if the former Yugoslav republics and the former Serbian province of Kosovo could become independent with Western weapons and wars, why not the strategic Ukrainian peninsula that opens into the Black Sea, as well as the pro-Russian separatist provinces in eastern Ukraine – with the help of Russia, do the same. According to him, the West does not want to recognize the will of the people in Crimea, as it does when it comes to Kosovo. (here, here)
Despite the fact that Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has since begun supporting a separatist movement, Putin has demanded that the annexation of Crimea be recognized as a legitimate reflection of the choice of local residents. (here)
Where are the differences in this comparison?
NATO did not “invade” Kosovo after expelling Serbian forces from there, but sent a peacekeeping mission. Russian troops, on the other hand, have established control over Crimea, even before a referendum on unification with Russia was held.
NATO intervened in Kosovo after evidence of Serbian crimes against Albanians, which included mass killings and expulsions from their settlements. Russian forces have intervened in Ukraine, although there have been no reports of abuses or violence against ethnic Russians.
Kosovo declared independence but did not join Albania. Crimea, which is inhabited mainly by Russian citizens, signed an agreement to join Russia two days after a referendum that the West judged undemocratic. (here)
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 (hereIn 2010, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not violate international law (hereKosovo's independence has so far been recognized by over 100 countries, including the US and most European Union countries (here).
Furthermore, Crimea is an integral part of the state of Ukraine which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 (here). The referendum in Crimea, held on March 16, 2014, was rejected in the same year as illegal – by the votes of 100 member states of the UN General Assembly (see here).
Although the comparison of Crimea with Kosovo is untenable, senior Russian officials continue to use this as an alibi, starting with the president, Vladimir Putin, the minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, etc. (see here and here)
The massacres in Bucha (Ukraine) and Recak (Kosovo), staged
Unstable comparisons have been made in the case of equating the crimes of Russian aggression in the Ukrainian city of Bucha with Serbian crimes in the Kosovo village of Recak.
The massacre in mid-January 1999 in Recak, in which at least 40 Albanians were killed, served as the reason for NATO to begin bombing Serbian targets. From the beginning until today, official Belgrade claims that it was a “staged” attack. The Serbs claim that those killed were KLA members in civilian clothes, not civilians, and that a war crime was fabricated to convince NATO to intervene.
Similarly, in the case of Bucha, official Moscow claimed that the corpses on the street were “arranged (prepared)” by the Ukrainian side.
Lavrov, in May and July of last year (2022), had stated that the Russian massacres of the civilian population in Ukrainian cities such as Bucha were a staging by the Ukrainian authorities and their Western allies. He went further by claiming that such stagings by the West had been carried out years earlier, citing the Racak massacre in January 1999. (here, here, here, here)
Based on the facts, a massacre of the Ukrainian civilian population was committed by the Russian army in Bucha. (here)
The argument that the Recak massacre was carried out by Serbian forces has been made by many world human rights organizations, among them the Credibility "Human Rights Watch"(HRW).
Organ transplantation and the “yellow house”
One of the other comparisons made by Russian officials and media is the connection of the unfounded claim of organ transplantation in Ukraine with the so-called "Yellow House" or organ transplantation in Albania during the war in Kosovo.
Within this connection, the aim is to argue without facts the possibility of organ transplantation in Ukraine, based on another unfounded claim known as the "Yellow House" case: "If it was possible to perform organ transplantations in 1999 under wartime conditions, then this is also possible in Ukraine."
In April of last year (2022), it was the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, who produced this link. (here, here)
Zakharova in April of this year (2023) made the unfounded claim of illegal organ transplantation in Ukraine, to compare it with another similar, unconfirmed claim, related to the “Yellow House” scenario during the war in Kosovo. She had said that “organ transplantation in Ukraine requires attention” since, as she put it, “such operations ‘on the ground’ were also carried out by illegal ‘transplantologists’ in the late nineties in Albania”. (here, here)
In August of this year (2023), Zakharova, in an editorial in the Russian newspaper “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, claimed without evidence that the KLA is involved in, as she claims, organ trafficking in Ukraine. Zakharova claims that Ukraine has become a leader in organ trafficking and that, as she stated, she has information that the KLA is also involved in it. (here, here, here)
Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the official Kremlin has tried to create disinformation narratives by linking them to unsubstantiated speculation about the existence of transplants in Albania (the Yellow House) under field conditions during the war in Kosovo.
We recall that precisely "The Specialist Court in The Hague, also known as the "Specialised Chambers"" was created with the claims of Dick Marty's report on the "Yellow House". (here)
However, these claims were never proven, and there is no element of organ trafficking in the indictments. (here)
The Head of the EULEX Investigative Task Force, Clint Williamson, confirmed the lack of evidence, and said that such a claim has never been proven. (here)
Also, the veracity of Dick Marty's report is being contested by a resolution of the Socialist Party of Albania of Prime Minister Edi Rama, in July 2022 (here).
The Russian narrative of organizing organ transplant operations in Ukraine continues to circulate. This claim has been debunked by fact-checkers from Europe.EUvsDisinfomation” with the argument that organ transplantation is a complex and time-limited medical procedure and is impossible to perform in field conditions. Allegations of organ trafficking during military activities in Ukraine are part of the means of Kremlin disinformation and have been in circulation since 2014In the past, accusing others of organ trafficking has been a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation technique.
Participation of Kosovars and the KLA in the Ukrainian war
Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, Russian officials and media have speculated about the participation of Kosovars in the Ukrainian war, alongside the latter.
This has been done by senior Russian officials such as President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, and the spokesperson for this ministry, Maria Zakharova.
Lavrov, in February last year, claimed that Moscow has information that mercenaries from Kosovo as well as Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have been deployed in the Donbas region of Ukraine. On the other hand, the Ukrainian ambassador to Albania, Volodymyr Shkurov, in an interview for “Euronews.al”, said that there has been interest from Kosovars to travel to Ukraine to participate in the defense of this country, but he does not mention any case of any Kosovar citizens having gone to join this army, as Lavrov claims. (here, here)
It was Russian President Putin who, in March of last year (2022), declared that mercenaries from the Balkan region, specifically from Croatia, Albania, and Kosovo, are participating in the war in Ukraine, on the side of the latter. (here, here)
Recently (August 2023), Zakharova also claimed that the KLA is still operating, but under a different name, and may be present in Ukraine, through a group of mercenaries. According to her, the KLA may also be involved in organ trafficking in Ukraine. (here, here)
The claims of senior Russian officials about the participation of groups from Kosovo and the possibility of the KLA presence in Ukraine are not based on facts.
Furthermore, these claims have been denied by Kosovo state officials. (here, here)