“With the involvement of the Azov national formation: the RF Ministry of Defense announced that Kiev was preparing an armed provocation against Pridnestrovie

The Kyiv regime is preparing an armed provocation against Transnistria.

This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Defense.

“According to available information, in the near future the Kiev regime is preparing an armed provocation against the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, which will be carried out by units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including with the involvement of the Azov nationalist formation *,” the statement says.

According to the Russian military, as a pretext for the invasion, it is planned to stage an alleged offensive of the Russian Armed Forces from the territory of Transnistria.

“For 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,” the defense department noted.

The Ministry of Defense stressed that they are closely monitoring the situation on the border of Ukraine with the PMR and are ready to respond to any changes in the situation.

It should be noted that in December 2022, the head of the Information and Security Service of Moldova, Alexander Musteata, in an interview with TVR Moldova, without providing any evidence, stated that Russia was allegedly planning an invasion of the territory of Moldova to unite with Transnistria.

At the same time, a few hours later, the press service of the department indicated that Musteata's statements had been incorrectly interpreted.

At the same time, the Romanian authorities indicated that they did not see the risks of an alleged Russian offensive against Moldova.

In mid-February, Moldovan President Maia Sandu expressed a similar point of view.

Tiraspol also reported that Transnistria is not a threat to anyone and should not be considered as an object of military manipulation.

“We are seeing certain dynamics from both the Ukrainian and Moldovan sides, but we are doing everything to prevent an escalation of tension,” said Vitaly Ignatiev, head of the Transnistrian Foreign Ministry, in an interview with Izvestia.

In January, Mustiata's words were commented on by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“It is noteworthy that at the same time as the statement, directly opposite assessments about the absence of any threats to the Republic of Moldova from Russia were voiced both by the Moldovan leadership, including the president and the speaker of parliament, and by the leadership of NATO and states neighboring Moldova,” he said in a conversation. with TASS Director of the Second Department of the CIS countries of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexei Polishchuk.

In February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moldova is one of the countries that the West wants to turn into another anti-Russia.

“Now Moldova is being looked at for this role, primarily because they were able to put a president at the head of the country by quite specific methods, far from free-democratic, which is simply eager to join NATO.

She (Maia Sandu. -

) has Romanian citizenship, she is ready to unite with Romania and is generally ready for almost anything, ”he said in an interview with journalist Dmitry Kiselev on the Russia 24 TV channel.

At the same time, later, speaking at a government hour in the State Duma, the minister stressed that Moscow wants to have good relations with Chisinau: “We absolutely do not feel pleasure from using this friendly country for anti-Russian purposes.”

According to him, the Russian side captures the maniacal desire of Kiev and the West to undermine Moscow's positions in the "5 + 2" mechanism (Moldova, Transnistria, OSCE, Russia, Ukraine and EU and US observers) on the Transnistrian settlement.

On February 23, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin indicated that Russia was making political and diplomatic efforts to preserve this format.

“The main thing now is to prevent even greater degradation of the dialogue between Chisinau and Tiraspol,” he said in an interview with TASS.

* "Azov" - the organization was recognized as a terrorist organization by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 08/02/2022.