Conflicts & War

Moldova calls security meeting after Transnistria explosions

Moscow, Apr 26 (EFE).- Moldova’s president Maia Sandu on Tuesday convened a security meeting following a series of explosions in the region of Transnistria, a Russian-backed breakaway region in Moldova that borders Ukraine.

The disturbances in the region come just days after a senior Russian military official outlined plans to take full control of eastern and southern Ukraine to create a land bridge stretching from Russia, to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, to Transnistria, an announcement that sent alarm bells ringing in Chisinau.

The interior ministry in Transnistria, a strip of land between the Dniester river and Ukraine’s border, on Tuesday claimed that two radio towers were destroyed by an explosion in the Grigoriopol region, according to Moldovan media.

The separatist ministry had also alleged Monday that unknown perpetrators attacked the security ministry in the de facto capital Tiraspol with rocket propelled grenades.

There were no casualties in either incident, although reports and images from the tightly-controlled separatist region are hard to independently verify.

Moldova’s office of reintegration said the disturbances in Tiraspol appeared to be a pretext to worsen the security situation in the region.

Transnistria, recognized internationally as a part of Moldova, broke away from Chisinau during the collapse of the Soviet Union, a move that resulted in a brief military conflict.

The region currently serves as a base to around 1,500 Russian troops.

The three dominant ethnic groups identified in the most recent census were Russian, Moldovan and Ukrainian. EFE

mos-ah/jt/ch

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