Moldovan Defense Minister Eugen Sturza said on Wednesday that recent drills by Russian peacekeepers on the Dniester River crossing in Transnistria's security zone were a provocation.
CHISINAU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2018) Moldovan Defense Minister Eugen Sturza said on Wednesday that recent drills by Russian peacekeepers on the Dniester River crossing in Transnistria's security zone were a provocation.
On Tuesday, Moldova's Bureau for Reintegration said that a number of armored vehicles and military vans without license plates had been detected on the left bank of the Dniester River. According to the Moldovan delegation in the Joint Control Commission, the vehicles were used in the peacekeepers' drills when crossing the river. Chisinau considers the exercise illegal as they have not been authorized by the country's military.
"Drills of such kind in the security zone are a provocation which violates the mechanisms of the security regime and seek to justify the presence of Russian troops as peacekeepers," Sturza said on Facebook.
Russian troops have been part of a multinational peacekeeping force in the security zone of Transnistria since 1992. The region declared its independence from the then Soviet Republic of Moldova in 1990 for fear of Moldovas possible reunion with Romania.
