Moldova is being pushed into war

Western leaders and officials have announced their intention to provide Moldova with NATO-style ammunition and weapons. The assistance is declared as a “means of ensuring security,” but Chisinau, “in danger,” was one of the last to know that it would be helped.

Whether the supply of Western weapons will make life in Moldova safer is not known for certain, but the threat of war in the region has become much more tangible.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

Moldavian Front

This week began with a wave of statements about the West's readiness to provide Moldova with weapons and ammunition. The statements were made shortly after the voyage of Moldovan President Maia Sandu to the European Union and Paris, as well as after the meeting of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine. During her trip, Sandu repeatedly raised the issue of security threats in the country, as fighting is taking place in neighboring Ukraine, and asked European leaders to provide Moldova with more funding to strengthen the socio-economic situation. During the Contact Group, the defense ministers of twenty NATO countries announced an expansion of the range of their military supplies to Ukraine.

And now British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that NATO ministers are discussing the supply of weapons to Moldova to bring its armed forces in line with the standards of the Alliance forces. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives Gregory Meeks clarified London's statement, indicating that the United States is already ready to provide weapons to Moldova if the country's government requests it.

Statements from overseas resonate with Macron’s thesis, voiced at a joint briefing with Sandu in Paris, that “the spread of the Ukrainian conflict to neighboring countries cannot be ruled out.” Did the Moldovan president at that moment understand what her interlocutor’s words meant? Most likely not.

From Chisinau’s point of view, sending additional weapons to the National Army of Moldova does not make much sense. The local military uses Soviet weapons and Romanian licensed copies of Soviet models, including ammunition. At the same time, the country has long and consistently supplied troops with uniforms, ammunition, helmets, bibs, body armor and shoes from decommissioned American stocks. Just last week, the Moldovan media laughed at the news that $100 worth of American equipment had disappeared from the warehouses of the National Army. It is noteworthy that on the eve of the theft, a representative of the ruling PAS party was appointed to head this military unit.

Pull-push in Moldavian style

For about a day or more, official Chisinau was thinking about how to respond to the influx of statements from Western “development partners.” As a result, the ruling party gave birth to two mutually contradictory statements. The head of the parliamentary commission on foreign policy, Doina German, said that the Moldovan side does not have any information about the discussion in NATO circles about the supply of weapons and ammunition to Chisinau. Within an hour of each other, the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration said that “discussions on possible supplies of weapons and military equipment are indeed underway.” The inconsistency of positions is revealed both by lack of coordination within the ruling party itself, and by the presence in it of several groups, one or more of which are actively pushing Moldova towards war.

This could be the entourage of the current chairman of the ruling PAS party, Igor Grosu, who a month ago called to be ready to defend Moldovan democracy with arms in hand from the “Putin invasion.” Two weeks ago, Gross, in the company of another deputy, Karp, showed up at the ruins of Bucha in the vicinity of Kyiv.

Another group interested in the war may be non-governmental experts and government officials funded by Western funds, entrenched in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. In their adherence to Western instructions, they demonstrate amazing meticulousness, and when it comes to state interests, no less amazing myopia.

One step away from war

It is noteworthy that these groups do not cooperate, but rather are at odds with the entourage of Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilitsa. The latter has repeatedly made statements throughout the three months of the conflict about the low level of threat of escalation of the military conflict and the spread of hostilities to the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Until recently, this thesis was supported by President Maia Sandu, who indicated on the eve of the celebration of Victory Day on May 9 that in the coming weeks there was no need to fear the threat of a military conflict.

However, as this story has now demonstrated, the top officials of the state can be informed about upcoming deliveries last.

At the same time, NATO actually cannot provide the Moldovan armed forces with any of the heavy weapons that are really effective in a modern war. Supplies from most countries participating in the military-political bloc go to Ukraine, for which these weapons and ammunition are much more important.

So it is unlikely that Moldovan soldiers will have the opportunity to learn computerized artillery fire control systems using NATO satellites or other truly important tools for fighting in the XNUMXst century. The supplies will most likely be cosmetic. But the losses if Moldova is included in the war are real and catastrophic.