Ukrainian officials are claiming that a string of unexplained attacks in neighboring Moldova suggests Russia may be trying to open up a new front in the two-month war.
On Monday, a rocket attack damaged a government security building in the breakaway Russian-backed Transnistria region within Moldova.
About 1,500 Russian troops are deployed in Transnistria, ostensibly as a peacekeeping force.
This Tuesday (26), a communications tower in Transnistria was damaged by unexplained explosions, prompting the Moldovan president to call an emergency meeting of the country’s security council.
These two incidents led Ukraine to accuse Russia of planned provocations in Transnistria.
Ukraine also blamed Russia for firing cruise missiles on Tuesday at a bridge over the estuary of the Dniester River.
The road and rail bridge connects Odessa to the extreme southwest of Ukraine, on the border with Moldova, and the damage essentially cuts through the region.
Maksym Marchenko, head of the military administration for the Odessa region, said Russia used three missiles, one of which hit the bridge.
“By their actions, the enemy is trying to cut off part of the Odessa region and create tension amidst the events” in Transnistria, Marchenko said.
Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, claimed that “Russian authorities at the level of the highest state representatives are declaring that it is necessary to occupy Moldova”.
“Today’s cruise missile attacks on our southern region may indicate Russia’s intentions to add the Ukrainian Bessarabia region (the extreme southwest) to all areas of its offensive,” he added.
The Ukrainian military’s “South” Operational Command said that in the Odessa region, “collaborators and agitators of the ‘Russian world'” were identified amid provocations and allegations that Ukraine planned to attack Transnistria.
Source: CNN Brasil
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