Speaking to reporters, Nicu Popescu said his government had seen “a dangerous deterioration in the situation” in recent days, following grenade attacks on the “security ministry” in the breakaway region of Transnistria on Monday. The rocket attacks represented “a very dangerous new moment in the history of our region,” he said, adding that Moldovan institutions had been put on alert in response. There are growing fears that Moldova and Transnistria could be drawn into the Ukraine conflict. The predominantly Russian-speaking region of Transnistria in eastern Moldova has been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 1992, after a brief war in which Moscow intervened on the side of the rebels. Last week, a senior Russian commander said gaining control of southern Ukraine would help Russia connect with Transnistria, which shares a 453-kilometer border with Ukraine. Then, on Monday, a series of mysterious explosions took place targeting the Transnistrian “ministry of state security”, a radio tower and a military unit. Map of Transnistria “Our analysis so far shows that there are tensions between different forces in the region that are interested in destabilizing the situation and this makes the Transnistrian region vulnerable and poses a threat to the Republic of Moldova,” said Popescu, who added that the majority of Moldovans, including those in Transnistria, wanted to stay out of the war. The Moldovan government, which does not control Transnistria, has been working on various allegations about the cause of the attacks, he said, adding that it could be a provocation or “the result of some tensions between some forces within the region”. He added: “We can not just point the finger or take responsibility, but what we see is that there are indeed some forces within the region working to destabilize the situation within that region.” According to Popescu, who is also Moldova’s foreign minister, the Transnistrian authorities announced last week that they were preventing all men of fighting age from leaving the region, which he described as a sign that “we are not yet outside the potentially dangerous zone”. Moldova had received public and private assurances from Moscow that “Russia continues to recognize Moldova’s territorial integrity,” he said, adding that “given the situation in the region, we remain very vigilant.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the recent incidents in Transnistria were an attempt to drag out the conflict in Ukraine. Transnistrian authorities have blamed Ukraine for the attacks, with Kyiv pointing the finger at Russia, saying Moscow was seeking to destabilize the region. A senior EU diplomat said the incidents were “clearly prepared by Russia itself”, a view based on their analysis of the situation and not on intelligence sources. “We do not see any active conflict,” said the diplomat, “but you never know why they [Russia] they have done crazy things. “ One of Europe’s poorest countries, Moldova is facing a large influx of refugees and the economic effects of the war that has cut off almost 15% of its exports. About 95,000 people who fled the war in Ukraine have arrived in Moldova, an amount that corresponds to 3.5% of the population, according to the Moldovan Foreign Ministry. While the number has stabilized and recently declined, the former Soviet Union is still adjusting to new arrivals, with Ukrainian refugees now representing one in 10 of Moldova’s child population. The war is also having “major negative economic consequences”, Popescu said, with up to 14% of Moldova’s exports to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia “almost stopped”. Inflation had jumped to 22% and the price of Moldovan imports had risen, as the nearby Ukrainian port of Odessa – the cheapest means of transporting many goods – was no longer available. Moldova is seeking financial support from the EU, as well as possible membership in the bloc. The Chisinau government applied for membership in March shortly after it began its bid to join Ukraine, and is busy answering hundreds of questions from Brussels about its readiness to join. Last week, the Moldovan government announced that it had submitted an initial questionnaire of 369 questions to Brussels. A second document is now being drafted covering 2,000 other questions about the country’s compatibility with EU law. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am “We are a country with a European history, a European identity, a European language – and our Romanian language is already an official language of the EU, so that makes things much easier,” Popescu said, adding that Moldova has proven capable of change of governments by democratic means. But even EU member states that support Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia say they are unlikely to join any time soon.
