The Serb militants fighting for Putin – and preparing for a new Balkan war

 A new generation of ethnic Serb nationalists is preparing for a war in Bosnia, The Telegraph can reveal.

Hundreds of militants have travelled to Ukraine to fight alongside Russian troops in the belief that “Mother Russia” will repay them by helping them retake lost Serbian territories such as Kosovo.

The nationalists, including veterans from the Bosnian War, are using social media to encourage young Serbs to join them in Russia. Some are offering £23,000 for them to sign up and fight in Ukraine.

There are fears that once they return home to Bosnia they will fuel a paramilitary conflict, 30 years after the Bosnian War ended.

Dario Ristic was one such case in point. The Serbian nationalist, hobbling awkwardly on a prosthetic leg and carrying proof of his newly acquired citizenship, returned to Bosnia. He had been injured while fighting in Ukraine with a Russian unit known as the Bears from Perm.

While in Ukraine, Mr Ristic was known by the ironic nom de guerre “speedy” and for carrying out sniper and drone attacks in cities like Avdiivka.

He honed his social media skills on sites such as TikTok and the Russian network Vkontakte, whipping up support from politically disaffected young Serbs back home by glamorising fighting on the front line and spreading nationalist messages.

His Russian unit even sent a birthday card to Ratko Mladic, the war criminal who is receiving palliative care in the Hague, where he was sentenced to life in prison for atrocities committed against Bosnian Muslims.

In one video posted on Telegram, Mr Ristic posed beside a fellow Serb who informed his audience back home: “Once we’re done with these Nato fascists here, we’re coming back to regain our shrines and what is ours. Glory to God, glory to Mother Russia – to victory!”

Upon returning home, Mr Ristic was arrested at Sarajevo airport for joining a foreign paramilitary unit but has since been released from prison and placed under house arrest pending completion of his trial.

When The Telegraph contacted Mr Ristic at his home in Modrica, he said from his doorstep: “I would like to talk to you. But I am banned by the law from talking to you, but perhaps in the future.”

Even now, far from the front, he is still considered a major recruitment risk with more than 10,000 followers online.

And he is joined online by other Serb nationalists who are trying to spread their message.

It is predominantly a hardcore group of veterans who fought in the Bosnian War who continue to instil divisive ideology in young men.

“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,” said Srecko Latal, an analyst in the region.

“Their numbers are small but they help to attract other discontented young Serbs who might be vulnerable to nationalist messaging. Just like the old IRA in Northern Ireland, you don’t need many armed individuals to threaten the balance of peace.”

One prominent veteran with a paternalistic influence over young fighters including Mr Ristic, is Davor Savicic, known as the “wolf” by his followers online.

During the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s he fought in an elite paramilitary unit known as Arkan’s Tigers, which was responsible for scores of atrocities committed against civilians. When Russia went to war with its perceived enemies, like other hardcore Serb veterans, Mr Savicic was quick to join them. He has fought in Crimea and Syria and was part of the now disbanded Wagner Group.

After he was recently treated for a shrapnel injury inflicted by Ukrainian forces, leaked medical reports revealed he was also a colonel in the feared GRU, the same Russian intelligence unit responsible for the Novichok attack carried out in Britain in 2018 on Sergei Skripal.

Under his direction, the GRU has established a series of front companies in sectors such as construction, with the aim of helping Serbs and other volunteers evade detection by their own authorities, issuing work permits and arranging travel itineraries via third countries.

“We infiltrated some of their messaging services posing as volunteers,” said Nino Bilajac, an investigative reporter from Sarajevo.

“The money on offer has been going up as battlefield losses make Russia more desperate for new fighters, and I was recently offered an up-front payment equivalent to around £23,000 for signing up, and a monthly salary of almost £2,500.”

For young men raised in nationalist households and living in towns such as Modrica with high unemployment and salaries as low as £500 per month, the allure is all too clear. Laws in both Serbia and Bosnia outlaw fighting for a foreign power, and sentences can range up to five years, but enforcement is rare.

When contacted over social media by The Telegraph, Zelko Tomic, a friend of Mr Ristic still on the front lines of Ukraine, said he would only give an interview for a fee of £100,000.

Back in Modrica, where the largest employer is a Russian-owned oil refinery now struggling because of sanctions, one passing local who knew Mr Ristic said he had boasted of his veteran’s disability pension from Moscow, and was planning to use some of the money to open a training centre and repair shop for drones, using his knowledge from the front.

Mr Ristic’s return to civilian life, however, will provide little comfort to the town’s Bosnian Muslim minority. Not far from his home the muezzin call to prayer rang out from a mosque rebuilt after the bloodletting of the Bosnian wars. One of those attending was Edib Zilic, who witnessed many of the atrocities as a child.

“I was just 10 when the tanks rolled in and my father was dragged away, and my brother almost killed when our neighbour’s house, just there, was blown to pieces,” said Mr Zilic, 43, pointing to a residential area opposite the mosque.

“In some places victims still have to cross paths with the perpetrators, and even today, despite all the restored friendships, there is still a minority of extremists that want to intimidate us, and want to send us back to those evil times, but we refuse to live in fear.”