The Russian Ministry of Defense on the morning of February 23 reported that Kiev was preparing an armed provocation in Transnistria in the near future. The Government of Moldova stated that they did not confirm the information of the department, and called on citizens to calm down.
The message of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation states that the provocation will be carried out by units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the involvement of the Azov battalion.
“As a pretext for the invasion, it is planned to stage an alleged offensive of Russian troops from the territory of Transnistria. To do this, the Ukrainian saboteurs participating in the staged invasion will be dressed in the uniform of the military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”
Ukraine has not officially commented on the statement of the Russian Defense Ministry.
Earlier, the head of the Moldovan non-governmental organization WatchDog, political scientist Valeriu Pasha, told The Insider that the likelihood of a Russian military invasion of Moldova is extremely low. According to him, journalists misinterpreted the words of Prime Minister Dorin Recean about Moscow's alleged plans to seize the Chisinau airport. In February, Moldovan President Maia Sandu stated that Russia wants to carry out a coup in the republic and bring its proteges to power.
The Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) is an unrecognized state formation formed in the 1990s, which is located on the left bank of the Dniester in Moldova. The PMR arose as a result of armed confrontation between the predominantly Russian and Ukrainian population of the region, on the one hand, and the Moldovans, on the other. The latter first advocated independence from the USSR, and then for unification with Romania. Since 1995, an operational group of Russian troops has been deployed in Transnistria, now its number is about 1.5 thousand people. One of the main tasks of the military contingent is to protect the complex of military warehouses in the village of Kolbasna, where more than 20 thousand tons of ammunition and military equipment are stored from the Soviet units.