​AS LONG AS UKRAINE HOLDS ON, MOLDOVA WILL BE OUT OF DANGER – AMBASSADOR PIROZHKOV

As long as Ukraine holds on and offers resistance to “attacks from the outside against our territory”, Moldova will be in no danger, believes the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Moldova, Sergey Pirozhkov.

On Wednesday, the diplomat held a meeting with the representatives of the Ukrainian ethnic community of Moldova and stated that Ukraine is now going through “an open war between separatists [residents of eastern Ukrainian regions] and foreign armed units, on the one side, and the Ukrainian army, on the other”.

In his words, “Presently, an escalation is taking place from behalf of Russia, which is supplying to Ukraine not only mercenaries but also heavy weapons. All this is leading to aggravation of the situation, and Ukraine has to combat the aggressor all by itself”.

The ambassador stated, “There is information and evidence that Russia supplies weaponry to Ukraine, which one can’t buy in gun shops. Ukraine is trying to resolve this problem because until armed mercenaries have been neutralized, the war in the east of the country will not end”.

“When the annexation of the Crimea took place, Ukraine was also waging its struggle alone, and continues to struggle now. Ukraine does not recognize the peninsular to be Russia’s territory, like other countries don’t recognize this, either, because illicit and full-scale changes are being made there, and human rights are violated”, stated the diplomat.

Pirozhkov said that, of course, Ukraine would like other countries, including Moldova, “to help in our struggle against this violence, which is being made against our country, to help in our struggle against the information war because as long as Ukraine is holding out, its neighbors are out of danger”.

The ambassador also hopes that “besides the United States, which has been supporting Ukraine from the very onset of the conflict, European countries, too, will work out a common opinion, and they will use the 3rd level of sanctions against the aggressor”.

“Putin wants to reconstruct kind of a Soviet Union, so he seeks to attract to it as many countries as possible – Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, which, however, signed their Association Agreements with the European Union recently. Hence are the lawless actions being made by Russia against Ukraine”, stated the ambassador.