CHISINAU, July 1. /TASS/. Soldiers of Russia’s taskforce in Transnistria are keeping their oath and will do their best to prevent an armed conflict in Transnistria like the one in 1992, commander of the operational group of Russian forces Colonel Dmitry Zelenkov said.
"Russian soldier always come to safeguard peace. It has always been and will always be this way. We will keep out oath and will continue to ensure precious peace, which has been in place here for more than 32 years. An institute has been established in Transnistria, which is a safe guarantor of peace. This fact remains inviolable. The operation group is cooperating with all law enforcement structures of Transnistria. I am convinced that we will be able to prevent a bloodshed like in 1992," Transnistria’s TSV television channel cited him at a meeting on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the group’s deployment to the area.
Transnistria, a largely Russian-speaking region on the left bank of the Dniester River, broke away from Moldova in September 1990 when radical Moldovan politicians demanded that the republic withdraw from the former Soviet Union and unify with Romania. Its relations with Moldova’s central government in Chisinau have been highly mixed and extremely tense at times ever since then. In 1992, after Chisinau tried to resolve the problem with the use of force, tensions erupted into a bloody armed conflict that claimed the lives of hundreds of people on both sides.
The fratricidal war was stopped after a ceasefire was signed in 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict area. Negotiations on the conflict’s peace settlement known as the 5+2 format (Moldova, Transnistria, the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine and observers from the United States and the European Union) started after that. Since then, Russian peacekeepers, along with their Transnistrian and Moldovan colleagues, have been maintaining peace in the region.
Apart from that, a Russian group of forces of around 1,000 soldiers and officers is deployed to the region to ensure the security of depots holding more than 20,000 tons of munitions that were put in storage there after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from European countries. A weapons and munitions withdrawal and disposal campaign started in 2001, but in 2004 the Transnistrian authorities cut it short following a deterioration in relations with Moldova. These troops are also supporting the peacekeepers who have found themselves literally under blockade after Ukraine blocked logistics routes through its territory.
However, Moldova insists on withdrawing the Russian military and replacing peacekeepers by civilian observers. Transnistria doesn’t share this position, saying that the withdrawal of Russian forces will lead to the recurrence of the armed conflict.