​UKRAINE’S DECISION LEADS TO GROWTH OF TENSION – TIRASPOL LEADER

The Thursday’s decision by the Ukrainian Supreme Rada [parliament] to denounce 5 military agreements with the Russian Federation, including essentially the one on Russian military personnel and cargo transit via the Ukrainian territory, is only adding to the growth of tension in this region of Europe, believes Yevgeny Shevchuk, the president of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (PMR).

Shevchuk said in an interview with the Parlamentskaya Gazeta of Moscow that the Rada decision is causing Transnistria’s concern because this step is creating a prerequisite for a factual ruining of the fundamentals of the current peacekeeper operation on the Dniester being run [for 2 decades now] jointly by the contingents of the conflicting sides – Moldova and Transnistria, by a Russian contingent and with the participation of Ukrainian military observers.

The Tiraspol leader is convinced that the peacekeeper operation in Transnistria is today the only possible efficient basis for peace and security in the conflict region, and the operation demonstrates its unique efficiency in maintaining peace, mechanisms of deterrence of the conflicting sides and of post-conflict stability ensuring,

“The step Kiev made on Thursday is causing regret because the curtailing of the mechanisms ensuring the peacekeeper operation means but generation of the risk of situation destabilization. Completion of the peacekeeper operation should only be the result of a final and lasting peaceful settlement of the conflict between Chisinau and Tiraspol. The principle of such synchronization was fixed between the sides many years ago and has been repeatedly confirmed internationally”, said Yevgeny Shevchuk.