CHISINAU, March 9. /TASS/. Six people were involved in the preparation of a foiled terrorist attack in the unrecognized Transnistria, the Pervy Pridnestrovsky TV channel, which received exclusive footage of the interrogation of one of the suspects, reported on Thursday.
As the TV channel specified on its Telegram channel, the perpetrators posed as refugees. Five of the six suspects implicated in preparing the terrorist attack in Transnistria are Ukrainian citizens. The citizenship of the sixth suspect, detainee Vyacheslav Kisnichan, is not specified. Earlier, it was reported that he was a native of Transnistria, who then moved to Odessa and was recruited by the Ukrainian Security Service.
According to the TV channel, Igor Sikaylo was detained, as well as Kisnichan, who is now giving a statement. According to investigators, Yury Bondar and Vladimir Grebenyuk, pretending to be Ukrainian refugees, bought a Land Rover which Kisnichan stuffed with explosives.
The Transnistrian Investigative Committee previously reported that law enforcement authorities had sufficient evidence to charge the suspects with preparing an act of terrorism, espionage, treason and other charges. According to the law enforcement officials, the attack was being plotted on orders from the Ukrainian Security Service against officials of the republic. The organizers planned to blow up a car in the center of Tiraspol, which was stuffed with eight kilograms of hexogen, as well as screws and nuts to cause maximum damage.
In April 2022, Transnistria was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. They started when grenade launchers were fired at a building housing the State Security Ministry. Then, broadcasting antennas were blown up at one of the region’s largest radio and TV centers, located in the village of Mayak. Military airfields near Tiraspol and Rybnitsa, and the location of the Transnistrian peacekeeping contingent were attacked as well.
In addition, grenade launchers were fired at an ammunition depot near the village of Kolbasna, which serves as a storage facility for roughly 20,000 tons of ammunition which were removed from European countries after Soviet troops withdrew. The facility was guarded by an Operational Group of Russian forces. No one was injured in the attack.
Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky stated that the sabotage plot had been hatched on Ukrainian territory and blamed the Moldovan special services for attempting to set fire to the military registration and enlistment office in Tiraspol. The Transnistrian leader instituted the maximum terrorist threat level, which was lowered from red to yellow on May 25 and remains in effect to this date.