Ruins of Yugoslavia: How Russia learned that NATO poses a threat

 The alliance’s strikes on Belgrade in the spring of 1999 forever changed relations between the West and Moscow

On the evening of March 24, 1999, student Elena Milincic was at home with her sister and a friend in Belgrade. Suddenly, the quiet evening was interrupted by an air-raid siren. The girls quickly hid under the table. It wasn’t the safest place, but they got lucky – their part of the city wasn’t attacked. Over the next 77 days, these girls and other Belgrade residents got a lot better at hiding from the bombs which threatened to kill them every day. The bombing was part of NATO’s military operation against Yugoslavia – the campaign that shook up the world order, and not just in the Balkans.