CHISINAU, August 25. /TASS/. The Moldovan intelligence service is downplaying the potential consequences of ammo warehouses in the village of Cobasna being blown up as a way to lay the ground for possible provocations against the military personnel guarding them — members of the Operational Group of Russian Forces (OGRF) in Transnistria, former President, leader of the largest opposition Party of Socialists Igor Dodon told TASS.
"There are increasingly more publications in the media suggesting that the West wants to change the political leadership in Moldova and Ukraine. And then the question arises: do [Vladimir] Zelensky and [Moldovan President Maia] Sandu want to provoke a situation around Transnistria to draw our country into the Ukrainian conflict? It is possible that in this situation, some hotheads might resort to provocations, and they are already trying to convince us that nothing terrible will happen if these warehouses are attacked by the Ukrainian military or blown up," Dodon said.
The Information and Security Service and the Military Information Agency said in a report that a possible explosion at the ammunition depots in Cobasna does not pose a threat of a regional catastrophe, as scientists from the Academy of Sciences of Moldova claimed several years ago. According to their data, only 2,800 tons of explosives are stored at the depots; the rest consists of metal and packaging. Moldovan parliament speaker, leader of the ruling Action and Solidarity Party, Igor Grosu, explained that the Moldovan authorities took this step to allay the concerns of European partners, who, according to him, "were sensitive to a possible explosion at the ammunition depots in Cobasna."
In Transnistria, they believe that the discussion about a possible explosion at the Cobasna arsenal looks like incitement to provocations and requires strengthening their security, Andrey Safonov, head of the foreign policy commission of the Supreme Council (parliament) of the unrecognized Transnistria, a deputy, told TASS. He did not rule out that this information is being used to brace the public for upcoming acts of sabotage.
Scientists from the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, who, on the instructions of Vladimir Voronin, the country's president at that time, prepared a special study. It stated that the range of the projectiles in the event of the arsenal in Cobasna exploding would be up to 50 km, and the effect of the detonation would be comparable to a 7.5-magnitude earthquake; the shock wave would be felt in Rybnitsa, Rezina, Orgeyev, and nearby Ukrainian cities.
About weapons depots
The Russian troops’ operational group in Transnistria supports the peacekeeping operation conducted together with the "blue helmets" of Moldova and Transnistria in accordance with the agreement signed with Moldova "On the Principles of a Peaceful Settlement of the Armed Conflict in the Transnistrian Region of the Republic of Moldova" dated July 21, 1992. Russian military personnel also guard the warehouses in Cobasna, where ammunition was stored after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe. The disposal and removal of these weapons, which began in 2001, were blocked by Tiraspol in 2004 after tensions in Moldovan domestic relations escalated. At a 2019 meeting with Dodon, who was then the president, Sergey Shoigu, who was then the Russian defense minister, proposed disposing of them. Dodon welcomed this initiative in his speech at the UN, saying that it could move the negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement forward. The United States and the OSCE expressed interest in participating in the disposal, offering Chisinau expert assistance to assess the technical condition of the warehouses.
However, Sandu, who was elected president in 2020, refused to meet with Transnistria leader Vadim Krasnoselsky, and negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement were also blocked. Krasnoselsky categorically opposed the withdrawal of the Joint Military Commission, which he considers a guarantor of peace, but supports the idea of disposing of ammunition. However, according to him, these issues should be discussed exclusively with the Russia.