TIRASPOL, July 8 /TASS/. Russian Colonel Sergey Rybakov has been appointed to head the united headquarters of the joint peacekeeping forces in Moldova’s unrecognized Republic of Transdniestria following a decision of the Joint Control Commission.

"Colonel Rybakov who arrived in the region as part of planned rotation had taken a special training course to be able to participate in the peacekeeping operation," the Joint Control Commission press center said.

Russia sent its peacekeepers to Transdniestria in July 1992 - exactly 24 years ago - to stop the fratricidal war, which claimed more than a thousand human lives and turned tens of thousands of people into refugees. Transdnietria has not seen a single outbreak of violence since the Russian peacekeepers arrived. That makes the peacekeeping operation in Transdniestria one of the most effective in Europe. At present, the Russian servicemen guarding peace in the conflict zone alongside the blue helmets from Moldova and Transdniestria. A group of military observers from Ukraine also watches the peacekeeping operation.

Another task of the Russian peacekeepers is to guard ammunition depots near Kolbasna village. According to various estimates, more than 20,000 tonnes of arms were brought in there after the Soviet troops had withdrawn from Eastern Europe.