Why Russia Support for Bosnian Serbs in Western Balkans Is Opposed by EU, NATO

The region is strategically important as Croatia, an EU member, has a border with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia that is exploited by human traffickers.

A view of the Trebišnjica river in Trebinje, in the Republika Srpska, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on July 14, 2025. Chris Summers/The Epoch Times

Thirty years ago this month, the Dayton Agreement ended more than three years of civil war in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which killed 100,000 people.

The agreement maintained the single state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but divided it into the ethnic Serb Republic—Republika Srpska—and a Muslim-Croat-populated Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.