As of: 04/26/2022 5:26 p.m
After suspected terrorist attacks in the breakaway region of Transnistria, Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of provocation. There is growing concern in the West that Russia could intervene militarily in the region.
The blowing up of two radio masts in the split-off Moldovan region of Transnistria on the border with Ukraine threatens to further aggravate the situation in the region. The radio center had transmitted Russian radio stations with two masts.
The Ministry for State Security in the Transnistrian capital Tiraspol was shot at on Monday. The Security Council of Transnistria imposed the highest terror alert level. The president of the Transnistria region, Vadim Krasnoselsky, said the attacks on the territory could be traced back to Ukraine, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Since a war with Moldova’s government troops in 1992, Transnistria has been controlled by Russian separatists. About 1,500 Russian soldiers are also stationed there, nominally for peacekeeping.
The border of the narrow strip of land, which is not internationally recognized as independent apart from Russia, is about 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow now wants to avoid a scenario in which it is forced to intervene in Transnistria, the Russian news agency RIA reported, without giving further details.
Moscow speaks of “provocation”
High-ranking Russian politicians speak of a provocation: “The events in Transnistria are a provocation aimed at drawing Russia even deeper into the military operations in the region,” said Leonid Kalashnikov, head of the Duma committee on the CIS.
The Ukrainian government, on the other hand, accuses Moscow of provoking itself in order to foment panic. Accordingly, the Russian troops stationed in Transnistria could try to attack Ukraine from there in the direction of the city of Odessa on the Black Sea.
A Russian major general said last week that his country’s armed forces were pursuing the war goal of complete control of southern Ukraine. This would pave the way to Transnistria.
worry in the west
In the West, concerns have been fueled by recent Russian statements that Russia may, as in the case of Ukraine, launch a military operation citing alleged threats in parts of the country under its protection. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the events were still being analyzed. We don’t want the conflict to escalate. In order to prevent that, Ukraine’s success is “the best way”.
The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, has called a meeting of the Security Council for the afternoon, the Interfax news agency reported. She condemned the attacks as an attempt to disrupt peace in the region and said her country was ready for a peaceful solution to the conflict. Moldova borders EU and NATO member Romania.
Meanwhile, Ukraine reported that a Russian missile attack had damaged a railway bridge in southern Ukraine’s Odessa region. It is about the bridge over the Dniester estuary, said railway chief Olexander Kamyshin in the Telegram news service. According to authorities, the parallel road route has also been closed for safety reasons.
This means that the south-western part of the Odessa region, which borders Romania and Moldova, would only be accessible from the Ukrainian heartland via a road through the Republic of Moldova.