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| Transnistria becomes potential hotspot in Russia's war |
| 2022-05-15 |
| [KYIVINDEPENDENT] Moldova’s Russian-occupied Transnistria region is becoming a new focal point in Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Tensions have been rising over the fate of the breakaway republic after several explosions have been reported in Transnistria, which lorussical Russian-led authorities claimed were attacks by Ukraine. One theory is that Russia may try to use its stronghold in Transnistria to either launch an attack against Ukraine from the west, opening a second front, or divert the Ukrainian army’s attention from the more important battle for Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Russia may also be trying to destabilize Moldova and discredit its pro-Western President Maia Sandu. A related purpose would be to send a signal to Romania, a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... member and Moldova’s strongest backer in the West. Transnistria, populated by Moldovans, Ukrainians and Russians, proclaimed independence in 1991 but it has not been recognized by any state. Russia, which backed Transnistria, invaded Moldova in 1992 and permanently deployed troops in the breakaway region. Sandu has called Russia’s military presence in Transnistria illegitimate and called for the withdrawal of Russian troops. INCIDENTS The escalation in Transnistria in recent weeks seemingly followed the pattern of Russia’s provocations in the run-up to its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which started on Feb. 24. On April 25, Russia’s proxies in Transnistria said that the building of the self-proclaimed republic’s State Security Ministry (MGB) in the city of Tiraspol had been fired at from grenade launchers. They also claimed that a drone had attacked a military airfield near Tiraspol. On April 26, the proxies said that radio antennas had been blown up in the town of Mayak in Transnistria. The towers were used to broadcast Russian radio. The proxies also said that a military base in the village of Parkany had been attacked. As a result, Transnistria raised its terrorism threat level to "red." Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed that Transnistria had also started military training as part of future mobilization. Vadym Krasnoselsky, the leader of Russia’s Transnistria proxies, blamed Ukraine for the incidents. Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch shot Ike through the elbow. Take that, Ike!he yelled...... Russian propaganda accused Ukraine, Romania and Moldova of planning to invade Transnistria. On April 27, Transnistria also claimed that Ukrainian drones had shelled unidentified objects "in the direction of" the Transnistrian village of Kolbasna, where a large arms depot is located. At the same time, in late April-early May Russia shelled a bridge across the estuary of the Dniester not far from Transnistria three times, and destroyed it. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Part of what we do here is tease out the needles from the hay, Choth Elmavitch6131. And given that both sides are spinning as hard as they can — perhaps we should call it marketing — that’s a lot of hay to work with. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2022-05-15 23:24 |
| #3 Thank you, Secret Master. Thank you, again. 90% of the "news" and "reporting" we're receiving from the MIC regarding Transnistria, Donbas and the like is complete bullshit. Spin, dezinformatsiya, agitprop. |
| Posted by: Choth Elmavitch6131 2022-05-15 23:15 |
| #2 Thank you, Secret Master. When I lived in Germany I discovered how parochial people can be. Including me, as it turned out — so it was a good, if uncomfortable learning. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2022-05-15 23:08 |
| #1 I'm definitely not here to shill for the Russians; but this article isn't historically accurate. If I may make a few points? 1) The Russians didn't "invade" Transnistria. There was a Soviet military base (basically a giant ammo dump) there when Moldova was an SSR. The Russian successor government kept it, and also support the Transnistrians, who are basically Russians. 2) There was a nasty little civil war there between 1990-1992. You can read about it here. Transnistria is (or was) the heavily industrialized region of Moldova, and mostly Russian. Moldova was talking about joining Romania, as Moldovans are basically Romanians. The Russians/Transnistrians weren't down with that. Hence, a thirty year stalemate. 3)The Moldovans, Transnistrians, and Russians together run something called the Joint Control Commission to oversea the Transnitrian/Moldovan border and keep things calm. You can read about it here. It's not perfect. But nobody's sons have come home in body bags for thirty years. The Kyiv Independent isn't being very independent when it comes to specifically this topic. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2022-05-15 19:04 |