The central state ceremony of the 20^th anniversary of the NATO aggression and the Day of Remembrance of the victims was held in Nis, south Serbia, late on Sunday. The day marked 20 years since the western military alliance started its attacks on Serbia, that lasted 78 days.

Addressing the gathering President Aleksandar Vucic said that the death of 2,500 civilians during the NATO aggression, and especially 79 children, will always be a crime for us.

The president of Serbia has told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that Serbia was absolutely stable.

Aleksandar Vucic was responding when asked "whether stability was threatened in the aftermath of the weekend conflict (during oppposition protests)."

He added that violent perpetrators do not represent Serbia.

NATO aggression was a grave crime against a small sovereign country, but 20 years on, the Serb people remain unbowed, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said. He stated this at the opening of the 4th Belgrade Strategic Dialogue.

"Serbia and the Serb people are still unbowed today, but today we are in the process of a comprehensive process of state consolidation and I am convinced of a safe and successful future," Vucic emphasized.

NATO has plans to neither reduce presence of its forces nor KFOR Mission in Kosovo, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Serbian Prva TV, adding the reason of NATO presence in Kosovo is to protect all the people and the Serbian community.

Russia has adopted a document on the 20th anniversary of the start of the NATO bombing of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). Tanjug is reporting this on Wednesday, citing Sputnik, that the text states "the initiators of this crime must be held responsible."

All international factors have been told clearly that any military intervention undermining the Brussels deal with NATO and KFOR would cause Serbia's reaction. Serbian Foreign Minister and First Deputy PM Ivica Dacic said this on Wednesday.

"Everyone knows well that no one must play with fire and expect Serbia not to react. Serbia will react," Dacic told reporters in response to questions about reports of the Kosovo authorities' plans to mount a raid on a Trepca plant in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, Tanjug is reporting.

There is no unified appeal by the international community to Pristina to revoke the tariffs on goods from Serbia, and that is why they remain in force, Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic told TV Pink.

He added the US has been interested in the tariffs to be revoked and the dialogue to continue, because they want to score political points.

President Aleksandar Vucic said the 20^th anniversary of the start of NATO's bombing will be marked with a special religious prayer, moleban, and a military parade.

"It's been 20 years since NATO's aggression on one sovereign country, which was not guided only by bombs from the air, it was done almost by any means - political, media," Vucic told RTS on Tuesday.

It is clear the goal because of which Serbia was bombarded in 1999 has not been fulfilled, and Kosovo remains Serbian, also thanking to the efforts of Russia that did not allow changes of the Resolution 1244. This is according to the Serbian Minister for Innovations and Technological Development, Nenad Popovic.

On the eve of celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the Czech Republic’s NATO membership, the country’s President Milos Zeman said the Alliance’s bombing of the then Yugoslavia in 1999 was a mistake and that he did not gladly look back at the time, BETA news agency reported.

Zeman said the Czech Republic was the newest NATO member who joined the Alliance only three weeks before the decision on the bombing of Yugoslavia was made, and that “it would not have been normal for a newcomer to veto the move as the only country to do so.”