Thursday. 28.03.2024
WAR IN UKRAINE

Moldova calls security council meeting after blasts in Transnistria

The Ukrainian intelligence services believe that Russia intends to control all of southern Ukraine up to the border with Transnistria
05 April 2022, Berlin: Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita speaks during a press conference after the conference in support of Moldova, which had the largest influx of refugees per capita since the war against Ukraine began. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters Pool/dpa.
Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita speaks after the conference in support of Moldova held in Berlin on April 5. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke/dpa.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu has called a meeting of the country's security council, following blasts that took down two radio towers in the breakaway Transnistria region in the east of the country, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

The towers in the region along the border with Ukraine had been used to broadcast Russian radio stations. Russian troops are stationed in Transnistria.

There was a sharp reaction from Moscow. "Events in Transnistria are a provocation with the aim of drawing Russia into hostilities in the region," Leonid Kalashnikov, head of the Russian parliament's committee for Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) affairs, said.

On Monday, the Ministry for State Security in the Transnistrian capital of Tiraspol came under attack, prompting the Transnistrian security council to impose the highest terrorist alert level.

There were no injuries in either attack.

Provocative acts

Ukraine accuses Russia of provocative acts with the aim of generating panic. Kiev believes the Russian troops stationed in the breakaway region could invade Ukraine in the direction of the key Black Sea port of Odessa.

Ukraine's intelligence services put out a statement recalling a comment on Friday by a senior Russian military commander to the effect that Russia aimed to control all of southern Ukraine up to the border with Transnistria.

Moldova calls security council meeting after blasts in Transnistria