Fears Putin will open a new front and invade Moldova next after blasts rock Ukraine’s tiny neighbour and Russia’s foreign minister says they should ‘worry about their own future’
- Sergei Lavrov: Ukraine neighbour with Russia-backed breakaway ‘should worry’
- ‘We believe the Kremlin has already taken the decision to attack Moldova’: Kyiv
- Separatist Transnistria region was targeted in a spate of mysterious bombings
- Government buildings attacked, with Russia-backed rebel groups suspected
- Putin now expected to focus war effort on Moldova as Ukraine invasion falters
- Reinforcements could emerge from Transnistria to take Black Sea port Odesa
- ‘If the Russians take control we will be an easier target’, Ukraine insider added
- Moldova borders NATO member Romania and would be another western front
- Russian commander Minnekayev: ‘One of our tasks is to establish full control over southern Ukraine. That will give yet another point of access to Transnistria’
Russia is already preparing to invade Moldova, Ukrainian army insiders have claimed.
Putin will create a ‘pretext’ in the country south-west of Ukraine in order to justify forces entering border region Transnistria, they warned.
Around 1,500 Russian soldiers are stationed in the Kremlin-backed breakaway state to ‘protect Russian-speaking peoples’.
Moldova’s entire army numbers 3,250 troops.
The Ministry of State and Security in regional capital Tiraspol (left) was bombed last Monday. Right: smartphone footage from an adjacent building shows smoke billowing after the attack
The breakaway region Transnistria on the border with Ukraine could be a crucial supply point for a full Russian invasion of crucial Black Sea port Odesa, officials in Kyiv warned. One insider said: ‘We believe the Kremlin has already taken the decision to attack Moldova.’
Ukrainian Ministry of Defence insiders said: ‘We believe the Kremlin has already taken the decision to attack Moldova’, The Times reported.
Moldovan president Maia Sandu said the explosions were an attempt to escalate tension between rival factions in Transnistria
‘The fate of Moldova is crucial. If the Russians start to take control we will be […] an easier target.’
Controlling Transnistria would forge a well-located supply point for the faltering invasion of southern Ukraine.
Strategic Black Sea port Odesa is just 35 miles from the border with Moldova – and 100 miles from capital Chisinau.
Transnistria’s regional capital Tiraspol, likely to be a flashpoint in the event of a Russian invasion, is 62 miles from Odesa.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told a Saudi broadcaster: ‘Moldova should worry about their own future. Because they’re being pulled into Nato.’
Tiraspol airport (satellite image pictured) is likely to become a flashpoint in any future conflict
Tiraspol airport is preparing to accept Russian Ilyushin-76 transport planes and helicopters, the Kyiv army insiders added.
They said: ‘That means they are preparing an airborne landing operation and there is a high probability the airborne troops will be delivered from Crimea.’
Russia is expected to base its excursion into Moldova on the ‘pretext’ of protecting Russian speakers in the country.
Tiraspol airport is reportedly preparing for the arrival of Russian Ilyushin Il-76 cargo planes
That could come in the form of false flag attack blamed on anti-Russian groups.
In Transnistria, ethnic Ukrainians and Russians outnumber Moldovans.
‘It’s very easy to create a pretext in Moldova’, a military source told The Times.
Sergei Lavrov (pictured last week in Moscow) said Moldova ‘should worry about their own future’ and keep off Ukraine
Since April 7, Russian military symbols have been banned in Moldova.
The tensions came as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace predicted Putin could use Russia’s Victory Day to announce an intensification of the Ukrainian onslaught – and perhaps an opening of new theatres of war.
He added: ‘Putin, having failed in nearly all objectives, may seek to consolidate what he’s got… and just be a sort of cancerous growth within the country.
‘We have to help Ukrainians effectively get the limpet off the rock and keep the momentum pushing them back.’
Analysts had predicted Putin wanted to be in a position where he could declare some form of victory on May 9.
But with Russian progress on the battlefield being less than conclusive, he may now seek to escalate further.
The explosions destroyed two powerful Soviet-era radio antennas that were re-broadcasting Russian stations in the region of Transnistria
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