The initial plan of NATO commanders was to deploy their forces at the Pristina airport on June 11th, 1999, while 250 Russian soldiers were already en route to the airport. NATO decided to send its forces to the Kacanik Gorge instead—had they encountered the Russians, who knows what might have happened. World War III could have ensued, explains Adrian Freer 25 years later, leader of the brigade that was supposed to land at the airport.
Paratroopers of the 5th Airborne Brigade led by Brigadier Adrian Freer were initially planned to land at the airport near Pristina. However, NATO commanders changed their minds and sent them to secure the southern entrance to Kosovo in the Kacanik Gorge.
“I won’t start World War III for you”
Who knows what might have happened if they had not been redirected to this location? Specifically, they note that 250 Russian soldiers were already en route to the airport by land from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), just before the entry of 50.000 NATO troops from North Macedonia and Albania.
The deployment of NATO soldiers was supposed to coincide with the withdrawal of Yugoslav and Serbian forces. However, nothing was guaranteed.
“NATO forces decided that if the Yugoslav Army wanted to create difficulties, the Kacanik Gorge could block it,” Freer recalls in an interview from his home in Scotland, 25 years later.
“Everything happened very quickly. There was very little delay passing through the Kacanik Gorge, and then I was asked to quickly reach the Pristina airport. The situation was extremely tense,” Freer said.
The story of the Russian march to Pristina and what followed became legendary after it was revealed a few months later that the United Kingdom (UK) general in charge of NATO forces in Kosovo, Michael Jackson, refused an order from the United States (U.S.) NATO Supreme Commander, Wesley Clark, to push the Russians back, the report states.
“I won’t start World War III for you,” Jackson reportedly told Clark, which at the time caused significant concern about the Western military alliance’s command chain.
On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the end of the Kosovo War and the deployment of NATO forces, 71-year-old Freer recalled the “strange” 24 hours he spent with Russian General Viktor Zavarzin and Jackson’s belief that tensions could be resolved in a “soldierly” manner.
“Russia and Serbia ‘hand in hand’”
The task of resolving the situation with them fell to the UK forces and Falklands veteran Freer.
“I arrived there and it was a standoff. We began talks with the Russian general in some kind of military trailer at Pristina airport. It was a very tense meeting. No one knew how it would work,” he said.
It quickly became clear that there was no talk of the Russians withdrawing “for some kind of diplomatic reasons.”
Zavarzin, who was then the Kremlin’s military representative to NATO, was “very clear about his goal,” Freer recalled. The general’s presence gave the Russian operation significant weight.
“As is known, Russia and Serbia were hand in hand, more so that Russia came to help Serbia, if I may say so,” he said.
Looking back, Freer notes that the UK stance on avoiding direct confrontation with Russian forces was “absolutely correct.”
“In the end, common sense prevailed. It would have been a disaster,” he concluded.
The Russians remained at the airport for four years—they withdrew in July 2003. Five years later, Kosovo declared independence, supported by major Western powers but not by Russia and Serbia.
Echoes in Ukraine
A quarter of a century later, amidst a new war in Europe, Freer emphasizes that he and his soldiers deployed in Kosovo felt they were “part of something meaningful, something truly significant.”
“There was obviously some horrible ethnic cleansing and people were traumatized,” he said, drawing parallels with Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February 2022.
“There is no doubt. We supported a humanitarian operation following crimes. It’s clearly similar to what is happening now in Ukraine where civilians are heavily on the front lines and suffering.”
When asked if he advocates for more direct Western intervention in the Ukraine war, Freer emphasizes it would be “ungrateful” of him to try to predict NATO’s future steps regarding the conflict.
“However, there is absolutely no doubt that without full NATO support, particularly in training Ukrainian soldiers and providing weapons and materials, Ukraine would not be able to conduct its current operations,” he stated, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
