The first use of NATO, a defensive alliance, to launch a war of aggression was one of the most consequential threats to world peace and security since WW2. The message it sent the Russians was that the west simply could not be trusted. Following the broken US assurances about the alliance “not extending an inch eastward” after German reunification, Russia saw the Kosovo bombing as conclusive evidence of western duplicity and NATO determination to encircle it. Kosovo foreshadowed the Ukraine crisis.

DAILY LINKS TO 78 DAYS OF BBC COVERAGE OF NATO BOMBING OF YUGOSLAVIA, MARCH – JUNE 1999