Moldova Says No Confirmation Of Alleged Plot To Kill Separatist Leaders; Kyiv Calls Claim A Kremlin Provocation

Moldova has cast doubt on an allegation by the de facto authorities of Transdniester that they had foiled a Ukraine-orchestrated "terrorist" plot to kill the separatist region's leaders, while Kyiv called it "a Kremlin provocation."

Transdniester's self-declared State Security Ministry said in a statement on March 9 that it had detained several suspects and opened investigations into "the organizing of a terrorist attack” and a "plot to kill two or more people in connection with their official position."

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean told journalists that his government could not confirm the information.

"We don't have a confirmation of these things... Moldova is in a stable situation and there is no danger of an escalation," Recean told reporters.

Alexandru Flenchea, a Moldovan co-president of the Joint Control Commission, a trilateral Moldovan-Ukrainian-Russian body tasked with peacekeeping in Transdniester, told RFE/RL's Moldovan Service that the allegation amounted to an "informational bomb." Flenchea said that the only way to prevent such situations is "close contact between Chisinau and Tiraspol regarding the security situation."

In a message on social media, the Security Service of Ukraine said the allegation "should be considered exclusively as a provocation orchestrated by the Kremlin."

Russia has falsely claimed that Ukraine is planning to invade Transdniester, raising suspicions that Moscow is looking for a pretext to annex the separatist region, as it did with Ukraine's Crimea in 2014. Moscow has said it would consider any attack on Transdniester as an attack on Russia itself.

Russia is the sole backer of Transdniester and maintains an armed forces base there with more than 1,000 Russian troops.

Some analysts have said that if Russia's war against Ukraine spreads, Moldova is likely one of the next targets for Moscow, while pro-Western President Maia Sandu has warned that Russia is planning destabilizing actions inside Moldova to justify a Russian invasion from Transdniester that could turn Moldova into a launch pad for attacks against Ukraine.

Transdniester's de facto general prosecutor, Anatoly Guretsky, told local television that the attack was to take place in a crowded area of the region's capital, Tiraspol, and was intended "not only to liquidate the state's top leadership, but to cause a large number of collateral victims."

Transdniestrian television station TV PMR posted photos on its Telegram channel that were allegedly taken during the interrogation of one suspect. It said the suspect, a native of Tiraspol with a criminal record, had moved to Odesa where he joined Ukraine's territorial defense forces last year and then transferred into Ukraine's Security Service.

Russian news agency Ria cited anonymous sources claiming the alleged assassination attempt occurred on March 6 and targeted separatist leader Vladimir Krasnoselsky.

Transdniester, which is mostly Russian speaking, declared independence from Moldova in 1990 over fears Chisinau could seek reunification with neighboring Romania, with which it shares a common history and language.

The two sides fought a short but bloody war in the spring of 1992 that was thwarted by Russian troops stationed in Transdniester who intervened on the separatists' side and have claimed to act as peacekeepers since.