CHISINAU, August 11. /TASS/. Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Staff Dmitry Kozak and Moldovan President Maia Sandu have discussed disposal of the ammunition in unrecognized Transnistria which is being guarded by the Operational Group of Russian Forces, Kozak told reporters following the meeting in Chisinau on Wednesday evening.

"We were asked to provide assistance in settling the Transnistrian problem and the ammunition disposal linked to it. We are also interested in disposing of this ammunition which has expired and cannot be transported. We agreed to cooperate on this," he said.

Russia deployed about 1,000 Russian servicemen in Transnistria. They are involved in the peacekeeping operation and guard warehouses in Kolbasna. The warehouses store over 20,000 tonnes of ammunition, which was brought there after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from European countries.

Moldova’s Transnistrian quagmire

The Transnistrian conflict erupted in March 1992, when initial clashes occurred between Moldovan police and Transnistrian militia near the city of Dubossary. They were followed by an outbreak of armed hostilities. By the summer, it had morphed into a large-scale conflict in Bendery, where about 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands were wounded and ended up as refugees.

The civil war was brought to an end following a peace agreement signed in Moscow in July 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict zone. Negotiations on peacefully settling the conflict known as the 5+2 format talks had started after that.

Shoigu initiative

The removal and disposal of ammunition from Kolbasna began in 2003, but the process was blocked by the Transnistrian authorities in 2004 after internal Moldovan relations deteriorated. The leader of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, said that the unrecognized republic is strongly against the withdrawal of the Russian troops, but supports the idea of ammunition disposal. However, these issues, according to him, should be discussed exclusively with the Russian Federation.

In August of 2019, at a meeting with the incumbent President of Moldova Igor Dodon, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu suggested starting the process of disposing of ammunition in Kolbasna. Speaking at the UN and PACE Dodon welcomed that initiative, which, according to him, could shift the negotiation process on the Transnistrian settlement. The U.S. and the OSCE expressed interest in participating in ammunition recycling. The OSCE experts also offered expert assistance in assessing technical condition of the warehouses.