MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. Ukraine may consider helping Moldova in the situation around the unrecognized Transnistria, including by military means, if Moldovan President Maia Sandu asks the Kiev authorities to intervene, Ukraine’s National Security Secretary Alexey Danilov told the RBC Ukraine news agency in an interview on Friday.
Danilov noted that if Ukraine received Sandu’s request to help in connection with the situation around Transnistria, including by military means, "it can be considered taking into account all the processes and circumstances." "Especially since we are neighbors," the official added.
Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Serebrian said on Friday that Moldovan and Ukrainian authorities had no agreements and were not preparing any joint operations in Transnistria.
In late February, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Kiev regime was planning a provocation against Transnistria in the near future using units of the Ukrainian armed forces and nationalists from the Azov batallion (outlawed in Russia). The ministry pointed out that the pretext for the invasion would be a staged attack by Russian troops from the territory of Transnistria. The Russian Defense Ministry also reported a significant accumulation of personnel and military equipment of Ukrainian units near the Ukrainian-Transnistrian border.
Natalia Gumenyuk, the spokeswoman for Operational Command South of the Ukrainian armed forces, admitted that units of Ukrainian troops were concentrated near the border with Transnistria. Gumenyuk later added that there was no activity from the territory of Transnistria. She noted that the Russian contingent in Transnistria, according to the Ukrainian military, posed no danger to Ukraine. In early March, speaking at a rally on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the beginning of the Transnistrian conflict, Sandu called for doing everything possible to prevent a new confrontation in the region.