Yeltsin Denounces Strikes as Rift With West Widens

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Wednesday denounced the NATO bombing raids against Bosnian Serbs, foreshadowing an end to Russia’s cooperation with the latest Western efforts in the Balkan crisis.

Yeltsin deemed the massive air strikes and artillery assaults by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a European rapid-reaction force a “cruel bombardment” likely to antagonize radical Serb nationalists who have already seized 70% of Bosnia-Herzegovina and laid waste to most of the rest.

More than 60 NATO warplanes descended on Bosnian Serb-held territory around Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, before dawn Wednesday to retaliate for a Bosnian Serb mortar attack on a crowded market Monday that killed 37 Sarajevans.

“Boris Yeltsin denounces all acts of violence on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, both the Serb shelling of peaceful areas and NATO’s cruel bombardment and artillery strikes on Serb positions,” said Sergei K. Medvedev, the president’s spokesman.

The unequivocal reaction of Yeltsin and other senior Kremlin figures spotlighted a widening rift between Russia and its four Western allies in the Contact Group that has been trying for more than two years to broker peace in the ravaged Balkans.

Moscow has steadfastly pushed a softer line against the Serbs than NATO countries have. Now that Kremlin appeals for restraint have been disregarded, there appeared to be little prospect of patching up Russia’s Contact Group partnership with the United States, Britain, France and Germany.