A group of activists has accused the Russian ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, of deliberately adding to the tensions surrounding the 28th anniversary of the 1995 Operation Storm. 

Botsan-Kharchenko compared the operation, one of the critical moments in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, to the situation of Russians in Ukraine’s Donbas region. He claimed they would have faced a similar fate to the Serbs that fled Croatia in 1995 had Russia not intervened with the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

Starting on August 7, 1995 Operation Storm liberated the city of Knin, the former centre of the Serb rebellion in Croatia, and the remaining Serb-held territory in Croatia. The operation forced around 200,000 Serbs to flee, resulting in 677 Serb casualties. 

Today, Operation Storm is a contentious issue in the Western Balkans. The anniversary is celebrated in Croatia as Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders. 

The event in Knin to mark this year’s anniversary was attended by the entire Croatian state leadership, with speeches by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and President Zoran Milanovic.

Meanwhile, the anniversary is commemorated as a day of national mourning in Serbia, and there was an exchange of criticism between officials from Belgrade and Zagreb. 

“Twenty-eight years have passed since Storm, the key operation in the Homeland War, the turning point operation that marked the end of the project of Greater Serbian aggression by the [Slobodan] Milosevic regime against Croatia,” said Plenkovic at the ceremony in Knin.

At the same time, he condemned statements made by Serbian President Vucic and Milorad Dodik, President of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska, during a commemoration event in Prijedor, Bosnia. Vucic described the operation as the largest ethnic cleansing in Europe since 1945. 

“We are clearly telling everyone, especially those who spoke yesterday [August 4], that Storm is the foundation of Croatian freedom,” Plenkovic said in response.

Botsan-Kharchenko weighed in ahead of the anniversary, comparing Operation Storm with attempts to drive Russians out of Ukraine’s Donbas region. 

"With a heavy heart, we remember with sympathy and sadness the tragic events that began on August 4, 1995. As a result of the so-called operation "Storm", about 250,000 Serbs were expelled from their homes in Krajina,” Botsan-Kharchenko wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 

“The anti-Serb operation was planned and carried out by Western intelligence agencies and other structures using the Croatian army as manpower,” he claimed. 

"Exactly the same mechanism and scenario, as it is now in Ukraine, according to the same patterns, with the same inhumanity. And the same tragic fate, as for the Krajina Serbs, was prepared for the Russians in the Donbas, if the plans of the West and the Kiev regime had not been thwarted by a Russian special military operation," he added. 

In a statement shared with bne IntelliNews by email on August 6, the citizens group Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Serbs Together Against the War criticised Botsan-Kharchenko’s comments, calling it a “dangerous spreading of disinformation” at a “very sensitive moment” for the region. 

“We draw the public's attention to the fact that the Russian ambassador continues to violate his powers by undiplomatically interfering in the internal affairs of our country, this time spreading dangerous misinformation and theories without any basis, which have as their goal only war and nationalist propaganda, spreading hatred and anti-Western sentiments,” the group’s statement said. 

“We consider absolutely unacceptable and dangerous the spreading of any disinformation by the official representative of the terrorist state of Russia, as well as the uncritical transmission of the mentioned untruths by the media. Ambassador Botsan-Harchenko continuously belittles the citizens of Serbia, promotes attitudes that are in complete contradiction to the principles of democracy, freedom, equality and fairness, as well as the sovereignty of the state of Serbia,” it added, calling for Botsan-Harchenko to be declared persona non-grata and expelled from Serbia.