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Moldovan FM: "We need to be prepared for all possible risks"

Nicu Popescu, Foreign Minister of Moldova

10 March 2022 18:23 (UTC +04:00)

Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu told reporters on Thursday that Chisinau sees no immediate threat from the Russia-aligned breakaway Transnistria region in the country's east, despite the regional instability wrought by the war in Ukraine, APA reports citing Newsweek.

Popescu said the government sees "no reason for Moldova to become the target of hostile military activities," though added: "We do have the responsibility to factor in all the possible threats."

Moldova is a small ex-Soviet republic wedged between Ukraine and Romania. Its western border is just over 20 miles from the strategic Ukrainian port city of Odessa, which in recent days has been preparing for a possible Russian assault.

And a swathe of land in the east of the country—between the Dniester River and the border with Ukraine—is already home to some 1,300 Russian troops, 400 of them peacekeepers. The soldiers are deployed to support the pro-Moscow self-declared Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

For Moldova—which Popescu described as Ukraine's "most fragile neighbor"—the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine could pose an existential threat, though the foreign minister said there were as yet no signs that separatists or their Russian backers in Transnistria were preparing to go on the offensive.

"At this stage, we do not see signs of intentions that the region of Transnistria, or its local security forces, or Russian military personnel stationed in Transnistria, would be prepared for deployment in military action in Ukraine," Popescu said.

"Of course, having said that, we cannot predict what will happen tomorrow or in two weeks from now or in two months from now. In this sense, for now, the situation around Transnistria is calm. We hope it will stay the same.

"But again, as I said, we need to be prepared for all possible risks. And of course, a lot will depend on the course of the war in Ukraine."

He continued: "We are not a very big country. We do not have a very big army and we do not have a very well-endowed army with sophisticated equipment. So as I said, we are obliged to prepare for the full spectrum of scenarios. But of course, we don't speculate, we don't predict, and we cannot talk publicly about what the scenarios are."