CHISINA, April 17. Moldova's attempts to dislodge the Task Force of Russian Forces (OGRF), which is conducting peacekeeping operations and protecting ammunition depots in Transnistria, are destructive and are escalating tensions in the security zone of the conflict, Transnistrian Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatiev said.

„We need to understand that the OGRF and the peace mechanism are interlinked. They are one, because the OGRF provides security for the warehouses in Kolbasna village and the rotation of the peace battalions. Strikes, restrictions on activities, attempts at intimidation - this certainly has a negative impact on the course of the peacekeeping operation,“ Ignatiev said on the First Transnistrian TV programme, commenting on the announcement by C Igor Grosu that the OGRF command has been declared undesirable in Moldova.

Ignatyev said the unrecognised republic views Moldova's actions against the OGRF as „unmotivated and destructive“.Some 1,000 OGRF soldiers and officers in Transnistria are supporting the peacekeeping operation and protecting warehouses where more than 20,000 tonnes of ammunition are stored that were transported there after Soviet troops withdrew from European countries. Their removal and disposal was blocked by the Transnistrian authorities in 2004 following the deterioration of relations between the two banks of the Dniester.

Moldova insists on the withdrawal of the OGRF and proposes to replace the peacekeeping force with a civilian mission with an international mandate. However, the Transnistrian authorities oppose this idea because a civilian mission was unable to prevent the 1992 armed conflict in which more than a thousand people died, tens of thousands were injured and became refugees.

Transnistria's President Vadim Krasnoselsky has repeatedly called for the resumption of negotiations in the „five plus two“ format, which has been frozen for more than five years. With this proposal, he appealed to Moldovan President Maia Sandova, who, after her election in 2020, declared that she did not intend to meet the leader of the unrecognised republic. According to Krasnoselski, the talks are necessary to ensure peace and security, prevent any provocations, respect human rights, solve economic and many other problems between the two banks of the Dniester.

TASS/gnews.cz