Moldova and the Russo-Ukrainian War
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moldova accepted Ukrainian refugees,[1] opened a bank account for donations,[2] and unofficially imposed sanctions on Russia.
The protests developed into the formation of secessionist movements in Gagauzia and Transnistria, which initially sought autonomy within the Moldavian SSR, in order to retain Russian and Gagauz as official languages.
[citation needed] Following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Moldova was forced to think about the threats to its country.
[12] On 6 March 2014, during an emergency EU meeting, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said that, "Russia is trying to redraw the borders of states.
"[13] On 23 March 2014, Supreme Allied Commander Europe Philip M. Breedlove said that Russian forces in Crimea were so numerous and prepared that if they were ordered to advance to Transnistria, it would pose a threat to Moldova.
In March 2014, the Ukrainian diplomat Yevhen Perebyinis claimed that Transnistria was gathering a group of activists and representatives of Cossack associations to be sent to Odesa under the premise of being local civilians to destabilize the situation there.
[22] In the same month, the Ukrainian military expert and blogger Dmytro Tymchuk considered it possible that, after the occupation of Crimea, Russia could try to invade Kherson and Odesa and establish a land connection to Transnistria.
Such statement was made by the Speaker of the Southern Regional Department of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Oleksandr Yakovenko.
[28] In this year the idea that Russia would be connected to Transnistria through an invasion of Ukraine was still present, as Romanian-born German writer and Nobel Prize in Literature recipient Herta Müller warned.
[32] On 15 March 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution to exclude Russia from the organization, in which Transnistria was called a "zone of Russian occupation.
[34] On 14 April 2022, the Moldovan parliament banned the Ribbon of St. George and the symbols V and Z "in the context of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine.
[36] Moldovan authorities stated that the decision was made "in order to protect the information space and prevent the risk of disinformation."
On 31 October 2022, a Russian missile, shot down by Ukrainian air defence systems, crashed into Naslavcea, a village in Moldova.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova announced that it was found by the Moldovan Border Police in an orchard close to the city of Briceni.
[51] Parts of Moldova were in blackouts, for short periods, due to Russian shelling of Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
On 25 April, explosions hit the headquarters of Transnistria's Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol, the republic's capital,[56] at 15:00 GMT.
[58][59] On 27 April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Transnistria reported that several drones flew over Cobasna, which is only around two kilometres (1+1⁄4 mi) away from the border with Ukraine, and that shots were fired at the village.
[61] On 5 June, at 5:10, a drone launched two explosives, most likely RGD-5 grenades, over the parking area of the fleet vehicles of a military reserve unit in Vladimirovca.
[62] Writing for the think tank Institute for the Study of War, Will Baumgardner concluded that the bombings were "likely a false flag operation executed by the Kremlin intended to draw Transnistria into its invasion of Ukraine".
[64] On 1 March 2022, a video leaked that depicted President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko standing in front of a battle map showing an incursion into Moldova from Odesa.
[66][67][68] On 1 September 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Moldova that, 'any action that would threaten the security of our troops [in Transnistria] would be considered ... as an attack on Russia.
[76] In 2022, protests demanding the resignation of the ruling pro-Western government began being held in the capital amid economic hardships.
On 21 February 2023, Moldova warned that Russia may attempt to seize the Chișinău International Airport in order to transfer troops during a coup.
