CHISINAU, March 28. /TASS/. Rising tensions around Transnistria may trigger a major armed conflict in the region, Vadim Krasnoselsky, leader of the unrecognized republic, said.
He is positive that Moldova and Romania, a NATO member, will inevitably be involved in any potential conflict in Transnistria because there are military agreements between the two countries.
"The direct road to world war runs through Transnistria," he pointed out at a meeting with municipal lawmakers. "If Moldova interferes, then Romania will interfere, too. If Romania interferes, then the Russian Federation will also interfere," Krasnoselsky explained.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in February that the Kiev regime was plotting a false flag operation against Transnistria using Ukraine’s armed forces and nationalists from the Azov Battalion (outlawed in Russia). The military agency specified that a staged attack from Transnistria, blamed on Russian troops, would be used as the excuse for the invasion. The Russian Defense Ministry also stressed that it was keeping a close eye on the situation on the border between Ukraine and Transnistria. Moldova’s government, however, refused to confirm this information and urged the country’s people to remain calm.
It is Russian peacekeepers that currently maintain security on the banks of the Dniester River. They were deployed to the conflict zone on July 29, 1992, in compliance with an agreement to peacefully settle the armed conflict in the Transnistrian region of Moldova that the presidents of Russia and Moldova signed in the presence of the Transnistrian leader on July 21, 1992. The Russian Operational Group of about 1,000 soldiers and officers is also deployed to Transnistria. It is mandated to protect ammunition depots that store over 20,000 metric tons of munitions brought there following the Soviet Army’s withdrawal from European countries. In addition, the group provides assistance to the peacekeepers who found themselves under a blockade after Ukraine had cut off supply routes through its territory.