MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. Russia’s peacekeeping operation in Transnistria enjoys support by both people living in Transnistria and Moldovan residents, Transnistrian Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatyev said on Friday.
"I think that the peacekeeping operation is largely supported by people in Moldova and Transnistria," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.
According to Ignatyev, people in both countries understand that "peacekeepers are the factor of stability, peace and security."
"I believe that people value the peacekeeping operation more now, amid the instable global situation and the conflict in Ukraine," he added.
Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the zone of combat operations in Transnistria in late July of 1992 under an agreement on peaceful settlement of the armed conflict in Moldova’s Transnistrian region. The move helped stop the confrontation between the Moldovan police and Transnistrian militias. Currently, peace in the region is being maintained by Russian, Moldovan, and Transnistrian peacekeepers, and a team of Ukrainian military observers.
Apart from that, the Russian military is tasked to ensure the security of depots in Cobasna that hold more than 20,000 tons of munitions that were put in storage there after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from European countries. A weapons and munitions withdrawal and disposal campaign started in 2001, but in 2004 the Transnistrian authorities cut it short following a deterioration in relations with Moldova.
Meanwhile, Chisinau insists on the withdrawal of the Russian group of forces and calls for replacing the peacekeepers with a civilian mission under an international mandate. However, Tiraspol recalls that back in 1992 such a mission had failed to prevent an armed conflict, as more than 1,000 lives were lost and tens of thousands were wounded.