A Ukrainian Who Stood Up to War Criminal Ratko Mladić

Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army, died on Thursday, Aug. 27, in UN custody while serving a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.His lawyer confirmed his death but did not disclose the cause, Reuters reported. However, it is known that he spent his final months in the hospital ward of the UN detention center near The Hague.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Mladić’s death also recalls the story of a Ukrainian officer who confronted him in July 1995, days after the Srebrenica genocide.Col. Mykola Verkhohliad faced him across a negotiating table and helped organize an evacuation that prevented thousands of Bosniak civilians in Žepa from suffering the same fate as those in Srebrenica.The crimes for which Mladić was convictedMladić commanded the Army of Republika Srpska during the 1992-95 Bosnian War. His forces conducted a campaign of sniping and shelling intended to terrorize Sarajevo’s civilian population.They forcibly removed Bosniaks and Croats from Serb-claimed territory and took UN personnel hostage to deter NATO airstrikes.In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN-declared safe area of Srebrenica. More than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered. Their bodies were buried in mass graves, and some were later moved to conceal the killings.The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted Mladić in 2017 of genocide in Srebrenica; persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, and forcible transfer as crimes against humanity; and murder, terror, unlawful attacks on civilians, and hostage-taking as violations of the laws or customs of war. Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Reaches Winter Gas Reserve Target of 14.6B Cubic Meters Early Ukraine has accumulated 14.6 billion cubic meters of gas, reaching its winter reserve target a month ahead of schedule. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with an appeals chamber upholding the convictions and sentence in 2021.The Dutch failure at SrebrenicaSrebrenica had been declared a UN safe area in 1993. By July 1995, roughly 400 lightly armed and poorly supplied Dutch peacekeepers, known as Dutchbat, remained there.They could not stop the Bosnian Serb offensive.Requests for NATO air support were repeatedly rejected or delayed, and the limited strikes that were eventually authorized came too late. After Mladić’s forces entered the enclave, Dutchbat failed to protect the civilians who had gathered at the UN compound in Potočari.Bosnian Serb forces separated men and boys from women and children, expelled the population, and carried out mass executions.Responsibility for the genocide lies with the Bosnian Serb forces that committed it. The failure to protect Srebrenica, however, also involved the Dutch contingent, the UN chain of command, an inadequate mandate, and the failure to provide effective military support.The UN acknowledged those failures in its 1999 report on the fall of Srebrenica, with the Dutch cabinet resigning in 2002 after a state-commissioned investigation into the disaster.In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the Netherlands bore limited liability for the deaths of approximately 350 men who had been made to leave the Dutchbat compound. The court also assessed that they would have had a 10% chance of survival had they been allowed to remain.Following this, in 2022, the Dutch government offered its “deepest apologies” for its share of the political responsibility for the failure to protect Srebrenica, while stressing that the Bosnian Serb army alone was responsible for the genocide.Žepa was nextAfter Srebrenica fell, Mladić’s forces turned toward Žepa, another isolated Bosniak enclave designated a UN safe area.Seventy-nine Ukrainian peacekeepers with nine armored personnel carriers were stationed there. They were short of food and fuel and surrounded by a far larger Bosnian Serb force.Verkhohliad, then deputy commander of the UN mission’s Sarajevo sector and the senior Ukrainian officer in Bosnia, was ordered to coordinate an evacuation. He arrived in Žepa on July 23 and began negotiations with Mladić and Bosniak commander Avdo Palić.The danger was clear. Bosnian Serb representatives said men between the ages of 17 and 65 would be treated as prisoners of war. After Srebrenica, allowing families to be separated could have meant handing the men over for execution.Verkhohliad refused to accept that arrangement.In a 2011 interview with Istorychna Pravda, he recalled telling the two commanders that his blue helmet required him to remain neutral, but that he had an order to evacuate Žepa’s civilians and would carry it out.“If you do not give us vehicles, I will lead people out on foot,” he said.Verkhohliad also told Mladić that the war would end and that “politicians will hand you over.” Mladić was arrested in Serbia in 2011 after spending almost 16 years as a fugitive.A peacekeeper on every busThe evacuation began on July 25 despite continued shelling. Verkhohliad insisted that families remain together.At least one Ukrainian peacekeeper traveled on each bus, rather than leaving the civilian convoy unprotected between vehicles at its front and rear. French peacekeepers in armored vehicles also assisted. The system was intended to prevent buses from being diverted and passengers from being removed at Bosnian Serb checkpoints.Nevertheless, the number evacuated remains disputed. Published accounts put the official figure at almost 5,000, while Ukrainian military accounts say it was close to 10,000.Verkhohliad was among the last peacekeepers to leave. In his account, he waited until the final bus crossed the bridge before withdrawing. Bosnian Serb forces then entered the enclave and blew up its mosque.Žepa still fell, and its capture was not bloodless. Palić and two other Bosniak leaders were detained after the forced removal of the population and killed. The findings were later confirmed in proceedings before the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.But Žepa did not become another Srebrenica. Thousands of civilians left under UN escort instead of being placed entirely in the hands of Mladić’s forces.Recognition came after his deathVerkhohliad later served in Ukraine’s military intelligence and retired from the armed forces in 2006.He died in Kyiv on May 30, 2021, at the age of 66 after suffering from a severe case of COVID-19.On Oct. 14, 2021, President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously awarded him the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the Gold Star for personal courage and heroism.While Mladić outlived him by five years, he died a convicted war criminal in UN custody. Verkhohliad died with far less international recognition, but the evacuation he helped secure remains one of the most consequential operations carried out by Ukrainian peacekeepers.