Hundreds of ethnic Serb nationalists who traveled to Ukraine to fight alongside Russian troops are returning to Bosnia, raising fears they could fuel paramilitary conflict 30 years after the Bosnian War ended, The Telegraph reported Saturday.
The militants believe “Mother Russia” will repay them by helping retake lost Serbian territories such as Kosovo. Some veterans from the Bosnian War are offering up to £23,000 to recruit young Serbs to fight in Ukraine, according to the Telegraph investigation.
Dario Ristic, a Serbian nationalist who returned to Bosnia after being injured fighting with a Russian unit known as the Bears from Perm, exemplifies the trend. While in Ukraine, Ristic went by the nom de guerre “speedy” and carried out sniper and drone attacks in cities like Avdiivka, the Telegraph reported.
Ristic used social media platforms including TikTok and the Russian network Vkontakte to glamorize fighting on the front lines and spread nationalist messages to young Serbs. His Russian unit sent a birthday card to Ratko Mladic, the war criminal serving a life sentence in The Hague for atrocities committed against Bosnian Muslims.
“Once we’re done with these NATO fascists here, we’re coming back to regain our shrines and what is ours,” a fellow Serb said in a video posted on Telegram alongside Ristic, according to the Telegraph.
Ristic was arrested at Sarajevo airport for joining a foreign paramilitary unit but has since been released and placed under house arrest pending trial. He maintains more than 10,000 followers online and is considered a major recruitment risk, the Telegraph reported.
“It is a common belief among these extremists that Mother Russia will one day repay their debt in blood by helping to restore Greater Serbia,” Srecko Latal, an analyst in the region, told the Telegraph. “Their numbers are small but they help to attract other discontented young Serbs who might be vulnerable to nationalist messaging.”
Davor Savicic, known as “the wolf,” maintains paternalistic influence over young fighters including Ristic. During the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, Savicic fought in Arkan’s Tigers, an elite paramilitary unit responsible for scores of atrocitiesagainst civilians. He has fought in Crimea and Syria and was part of the now-disbanded Wagner Group.
Leaked medical reports revealed Savicic is a colonel in Russia’s GRU, the intelligence unit responsible for the 2018 Novichok attack in Britain, according to the Telegraph. The GRU has established front companies to help Serbs and other volunteers evade detection by their own authorities.
Investigative reporter Nino Bilajac from Sarajevo said he was offered approximately £23,000 up front and a monthly salary of almost £2,500 when he infiltrated recruitment messaging services posing as a volunteer, the Telegraph reported.
For young men in towns like Modrica with high unemployment and salaries as low as £500 per month, the financial incentive is significant. Laws in both Serbia and Bosnia outlaw fighting for foreign powers, with sentences up to five years, but enforcement is rare.
Ristic told locals he plans to use his Russian veteran’s disability pension to open a drone training center and repair shop in Modrica, where the largest employer is a Russian-owned oil refinery now struggling due to sanctions, according to the Telegraph.
