Today on the BBC Russian Service website there was a note with the recollections of the British singer James Blunt, who served in Kosovo in 1999. He was in charge of the British military unit in Pristina at a time when the Pristina airfield was suddenly captured by a battalion of our paratroopers. Blunt received an order from the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces of NATO in Europe, Wesley Clark, a general of the US armed forces, to attack with his team of Russian paratroopers, but this order did not follow. Fortunately for James Blunt, who risked ending up under a tribunal, following Clark's order, British General Mike Jackson received an order of the opposite content.
Yes, Wesley Clark did give the order to attack the Russian paratroopers. First, he was enraged that NATO intelligence did not timely report on the advance of our battalion and on the route it would follow. They found him our battalion only six hours after his release. Secondly, he understood that the Slatina airfield is the most important strategic facility in the whole of Kosovo. And that whoever controls it will largely determine the situation in Kosovo as a whole. Because there were no other airfields capable of receiving NATO aircraft on the territory of the region. Naturally, the entire operation of NATO troops was built taking into account this facility, which provided material supply and support for the alliance forces.
However, the commander of the British forces, General Mike Jackson, who was formally subordinate to Wesley Clark, refused to carry out his order. He did not want to fight the Russians. However, we knew about it.
Moreover, Jackson ordered the commander of the brigade, which was to take control of Slatina, to interact with the Russian command. And when ours took up defensive positions at the airfield, General Zavarzin told me that the British were asking for a meeting. I allowed them to be accepted. The commander of the British brigade arrived at the location of our battalion with his staff officers, and after an hour and a half of conversation Zavarzin reported that the British were normal guys. The subject of the negotiations was issues of general security. But after that, the commander of the British brigade and five of his staff officers asked to … spend the night. I ask Zavarzin if this looks like a provocation. No, he replies, it doesn't look like it. But then why such a strange request? He replies that they are afraid, firstly, of the Kosovo Serbs, secondly, of the Albanians, and in the third they fear their own special forces - the Nepalese Gurkhas, who were mainly equipped with their brigade. I reported this unusual request to Marshal Sergeev, Minister of Defense. Igor Dmitrievich also first asked about the provocation, but as a result, the British officers spent the first night with us.
When we made a decision to bring our battalion into Slatina, we did not rule out the possibility of any provocation against ourselves and worked out various options. We had prepared reserves for a quick transfer and worked out airfields for the landing of our paratroopers. Also, our brigade was stationed in Ugljevik, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was not part of the multinational division "North", but interacted with it. So we had shock capabilities. But, in addition, I reported to the Minister of Defense that as soon as the first shot was fired, Serbian troops would come to our aid. I just knew the mood of the Serbian military - they were humiliated, they lost the war, they were forced to leave their territory. Therefore, in the event of an attack on us, NATO troops would attack the entire former Yugoslav army. Then they would get what they most feared - a ground operation. Marshal Sergeev agreed with these arguments. Based on this, we decided to land the battalion in Pristina.
Subsequently, Jackson wrote in his memoirs why he did not follow Clark's order. The fact is that to start a war with Russia, a decision of the NATO Council was required, but it was difficult to imagine that the Council would then agree to the Third World War. Be that as it may, Mike Jackson did not want his soldiers to start this war. And Wesley Clarke simply completely lost the situation with the airfield to us, so his decisions were impulsive.
At the end of a post on the Air Force website, singer James Blunt says that in the British army they were taught to assess the situation from a moral point of view. I can't say anything about this. I think this is nothing more than lyrics. They would have received an order from their general, of course, they would have followed it. The British Army is very disciplined.
