(Bloomberg) — Authorities in the breakaway Transnistria region of Moldova reported an attack on a military unit Tuesday, hours after a pair of antennas broadcasting Russian radio were blown up, the latest violence reported in the Moscow-backed enclave in recent days.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu blamed the attacks on factions within the separatist-held enclave and said her government would resist “attempts to drag Moldova into actions that may endanger peace within the country.”
The leader of the self-proclaimed republic, where Russia has about 1,500 troops, traced the attacks to Ukraine, Tass reported. President Vadim Krasnoselsky said three attacks had been reported in recent days: blasts that destroyed the radio towers, another unspecified episode at a military unit and Monday’s strike in which unknown attackers fired several rounds from a grenade launcher at the state security headquarters in Transnistria’s capital, Tiraspol.
There were no injuries reported in any of the attacks but separatist authorities raised their terrorism threat level and ordered security tightened.
Moscow has backed Transnistria, wedged along Ukraine’s border west of the Black Sea port of Odesa, since a war there in the early 1990s.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko called for an investigation of the latest incidents and said Moscow hoped that Transnistria wouldn’t be drawn into the conflict in Ukraine, Tass reported.
Leonid Kalashnikov, a senior Russian legislator, said the violence was “a provocation aimed at drawing Russia deeper into military action in the region,” the Interfax news service reported.
Last week, a Russian general suggested that Moscow may continue its military advance across southern Ukraine to reach Transnistria, though no other officials have publicly endorsed that goal.
As Moscow has gathered its troops for a new offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, it has sought to maintain threats in other parts of the country to prevent Kyiv from concentrating its defending forces in the area.
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