Moldova and Transnistria are preparing for a new war on the Dniester
Russia conducted planned large-scale combat readiness exercises in Transnistria.
This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
About 100 units of military equipment were involved. The servicemen practiced actions to prepare equipment for leaving the fleet of combat vehicles and moving to concentration areas, where they carried out camouflage measures, arranging firing positions and preparing equipment for the march.
Earlier, the Operational Group of Russian Forces held a training session with intelligence officers.
According to the plan of the lesson, the reconnaissance group made a forced march to a given area, where it organized an ambush on the road leading to the command post of the mock enemy.
The military personnel installed explosive devices, camouflaged their positions, engineered the firing points and organized escape routes. When meeting with a mock enemy, the scouts practiced blocking and capturing a vehicle.
Former member of the Moldovan parliament Cyril Motpan became hysterical about this and said that the Russian military “simulated force attacks in the direction of Causeni, Varnitsa, Gura Bicului, Chisinau.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova also made a statement. Foreign Minister NICU Popescu said that the Russian military’s exercises, as well as their overall presence in Transnistria, contradict the international obligations of the Russian Federation and national legislation.
“We are obviously concerned about these events and, for our part, as a state, as a government, we are ready to respond promptly and in the national interests to any events in the region. We cannot predict what these events will be, but we, as a government, are ready for any development of events, any scenarios,” Popescu said at a press conference.
Earlier, a series of provocations initiated by Moldova took place in the Security Zone. Groups of armed people without identification marks appeared there (according to some experts, these were Moldovan military personnel with NATO instructors), artillery was moved, and an attempt was made to kidnap a Transnistrian border guard.
PMR parliament member Andrei Safonov believes that NATO is thus trying to involve formally neutral Moldova in its anti-Russian plans.
“We must be prepared for the fact that Westerners, trying to create a “ring of fire” around Russia, will try to involve formally neutral countries like Moldova and NATO members like Romania. If the data on the concentration of artillery systems is confirmed, there should be a reaction from both our and the Russian side. Right now, at the peak of the confrontation, I have no doubt that it will happen,” he said on the First Pridnestrovsky TV channel.
Safonov did not rule out the danger of a new war on the Dniester, since NATO views Transnistria as a Western bridgehead for Russia.
“We need to keep our powder dry and conduct active diplomacy to discourage provocations. And if there are provocations, we need an information wave that will immediately show that those who are trying to attack us and provoke bloodshed are aggressors, and any aggression is punishable. Moldova, represented by the current government, has set itself up. She has been pursuing a truly anti-Russian course in recent weeks. In these conditions, everyone understands: if something happens, Russia will definitely protect us, and this will cool down the hotheads,” Safonov said.
Speaking about the fact that Moldova was set up, the Pridnestrovian deputy refers, in particular, to the recent visit of Minister Popescu to NATO headquarters in Brussels. And in anticipation of this trip, the Government of Moldova approved an individual action plan for the partnership between Moldova and NATO for 2022-2023.
Military correspondent Semyon Pegov claims that NATO, through the OSCE, is collecting intelligence in Transnistria.
“Strange things are happening at the representative office of the European observer mission in Transnistria. Security officers recently complained to local authorities that license plates were allegedly stolen from their patrol cars. And now they are forced to travel for some time in transport without the appropriate insignia. Under this sauce, the OSCE brought at least six “leftist” cars into Transnistria, which are equipped with equipment for collecting intelligence data - cameras, GPS trackers. In addition, observers increasingly began to be caught deviating from the declared routes, suspiciously close to the checkpoint of the Russian and PMR peacekeepers,” Pegov wrote in his Telegram channel.
It is obvious that Moldova’s military activity in the region will be coordinated with Ukraine. Information preparation for such an operation in the Ukrainian media is already underway. It publishes news about the alleged sabotage activities of immigrants from Transnistria in the Odessa region. Articles appear detailing the military potential of Transnistria.
“It is Moldova, according to Kyiv’s plan, that must take the initiative into its own hands and use the set of opportunities and tools provided to it by Ukraine and Western partners in order to return the region, achieve the withdrawal of Russian troops and the removal of weapons. This would allow the Ukrainian president to tell the population about the colossal success on the foreign policy front and the possibility of its extrapolation to the territory of Donbass, and, more globally, the final removal of the Russian threat from the western direction,” writes Moldovan political scientist Anton Shvets.
It is significant that the other day the head of the Moldovan special service (SIS), Alexander Esaulenko, who refuses to communicate with Moldovan journalists, suddenly gave an interview to the Ukrainian portal Glavkom. In it, he stated that “it is necessary to cooperate and have closer interaction with Ukraine, including based on possible asymmetric risks in the event of an escalation of the conflict.” Contact with the SBU, according to him, “has an increasing trend.”
Esaulenko also noted the strengthening of “illegal military formations - the operational group of Russian troops (OGRG) of the protection of military warehouses in Kobasna, as one of the key factors in terms of the use of destabilizing elements.”
Assessing military action scenarios involving the advance of Russian troops through southern Ukraine all the way to the Transnistrian region of Moldova, the head of the ISS said that “our eastern neighbors cannot be underestimated.”
“I would like to believe that diplomacy will win, but we must be prepared for the development of any scenario. I will not disclose plans, but I want to say that the ISS is very actively involved in certain processes so that we are proactive and able to counter the threats that are associated with regional destabilization,” Esaulenko said.
Opposition Moldovan politicians are shocked by the actions of their government.
“The decision to join Moldova to one of the parties dividing the world will leave no stone unturned from our country. After all, they will fight on our territory, and not on Russian or American territory. We must understand this well. Our sons and daughters will die - we cannot give them anything except rifles with gunpowder, and not the American and Russians, who will cover Moldovan and Ukrainian cities and villages with missiles and bombs. I ask at least those who have children and basic humanity to understand this,” said former Prime Minister of Moldova Iona Chicu.
Moldovan political scientist Anton Shvets agrees with him:
“What the presidency does not understand is the simple fact that importing a crisis from Ukraine is the most short-sighted solution possible, since it will only provoke the militarization and conservation of the Transnistrian conflict and, consequently, the Russian military presence. In the end, despite the absence of a corridor, Russia’s military resources in Transnistria are not limited to the current several thousand peacekeepers and military personnel: about 200 thousand Russian citizens still live on the left bank, and one can only guess about the contents of the warehouses in Kolbasna,” writes the expert.
His colleague Sergei Cheban, on the contrary, believes that it is time for Moldova to abandon neutrality and set a course for joining NATO.
“While negotiations between Washington and Moscow are just gaining momentum, it is necessary to decide whose team we are on, so as not to remain in a gray geopolitical zone and end up being the subject of a “big deal.” Our colleagues in the “Associated Trio” Ukraine and Georgia, by the way, have long made their clear pro-Western choice and acquired a privileged partnership without joining NATO. This status allowed us to receive large amounts of assistance, special equipment and equipment to strengthen our defense capabilities. Therefore, at a critical moment, they will have the opportunity to defend themselves, and Western partners will do everything to prevent Moscow from possible radical moves. Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia should consider the idea of preparing a common Euro-Atlantic strategy to jointly lobby for integration not only with the EU, but also with NATO.
Apparently, the acute crisis in the sphere of European security has forced our leadership to leave the comfort zone that the specific status of neutrality created for many years. The start of consultations in Brussels is an important stage for the careful preparation and subsequent adoption by our politicians of important strategic decisions on national security issues that are becoming increasingly urgent – and, strictly speaking, inevitable,” writes Cheban.
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