Russian media outlets in Serbian have published a statement by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova regarding the anniversary of NATO's intervention in the former Yugoslavia in 1999 and the March riots in Kosovo in 2004.
Regarding NATO's intervention, Zakharova claims that 3000 missiles and 80000 tons of bombs were dropped.
Meanwhile, regarding the riots of March 2004, Zaharova states that the victims were only Serbs and non-Albanian ethnicities.
Based on the facts published in international reports regarding the above events, it appears that Zakharova's claims are unfounded.
Link to Zakharova's statement published in Russian media in Serbian:
https://lat.rt.rs/rusija/81446-zaharova-rusija-nato-agresija/
Parts of Zakharova's statement translated into Albanian:
"This year, more precisely, March 17 marks the 20th anniversary of the ethnic massacre in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. That day is not only one of the most tragic pages in the modern history of the Serbian region, but also one of the most terrible manifestations of interethnic violence and religious intolerance in post-war history. The victims of the pogrom were civilians of Serbian and other non-Albanian nationalities living in the region."
"In 11 weeks, starting on March 24, 1999, 3,000 missiles were fired at the sovereign European republic and 80,000 tons of bombs were dropped, including cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions."
Regarding the anniversary of NATO's intervention in the former Yugoslavia and the March 2004 riots in Kosovo, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, made a statement.
Although it is known that the purpose of NATO's intervention was primarily to stop the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo, in this public statement, Zakharova repeated the false narrative about NATO's intervention, saying that it was carried out under the pretext of unfounded accusations.
In addition, in her statement, Zakharova presents data where she makes unfounded claims about the number of bombs and missiles dropped by NATO during the air campaign against Yugoslav/Serbian army targets in 1999.
The European Journal of International Law (EJIL), in a report published in 2001 (see here), writes that the number of bombs and missiles of all types dropped by NATO in the 1999 air campaign reached 23 thousand.
Other credible reports do not mention the total number of bombs/missiles dropped by NATO in that campaign. The Amnesty International (AI) report provides other useful data on the events in Kosovo and the NATO campaign, but does not provide any total number of missiles/bombs dropped by the Euro-Atlantic Alliance (here).Even in NATO reports on developments in Kosovo at that time, such figures are not given (here).
Reports on NATO's '99 campaign have also been published by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (see here), and “Human Rights Watch”, an organization that is particularly dedicated to the dropping of cluster bombs (see here).
However, the total number of bombs/missiles dropped was not found in any of these reports.
As for Zakharova's claim that during the March 2004 riots the victims were Serbian civilians and civilians of other non-Albanian nationalities, it is not true.
According to the data of Fund for Humanitarian Law, 15 Albanians and 12 Serbs died in ethnic violence on March 17 and 18, 2004.
Human Rights Watch reports that nineteen people – eight Kosovo Serbs and eleven Kosovo Albanians – were killed during the March riots.
So, the two reports cited above provide data that during the riots of March 2004 there were victims on both the Serb and Albanian sides.
Analyze:
Zakharova's statement that during NATO's intervention against Yugoslav/Serbian army targets in 1999, 3000 missiles and 80000 tons of bombs were dropped is untenable, due to the fact that international reports do not provide figures, except for the report published by the "European Journal of International Law" (EJIL), which gives a figure of 23000 bombs and missiles dropped by NATO.
Even the statement that during the March 2004 riots only Serb civilians and civilians of other non-Albanian nationalities were victims is not true, due to the fact that both Serb and Albanian civilians lost their lives in these riots.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info considers Zakharova's statements as "disinformation".
Assessment/definition: "Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. Behind the motive of producers/distributors of disinformation content lies the achievement of a political, financial, psychological goal.