​TRANSNISTRIA DEMANDS EXTRAORDINARY 5+2 MEETING

The Transnistrian side has stood up with an initiative to urgently convoke a meeting of the participants in the 5+2 negotiating format [Moldova and Transnistria as the conflicting sides, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE as international mediators and guarantors (5); and the European Union and the United States as observers (2)] to discuss only one but really burning issue – the railroad communication, Transnistria’s chief negotiator, acting minister of foreign affairs Vitaly Ignatiev stated to journalists on Wednesday evening.

In his words, to resolve the problem of Moldova’s and Ukraine’s unilateral actions, restricting the delivery of vital-importance cargoes by railroad, it is necessary to mobilize the efforts of all the international stakeholders.

“We have already undertaken a complex of diplomatic measures, have sent our proposals on resolving the impasse to Chisinau and Kiev and to other negotiating process actors. We have also stated the need for an immediate meeting of the sides’ expert groups on railroad transport so as to solve the problem that appeared after Moldova and Ukraine had prohibited delivering freights to Transnistria by using our rolling stock”, said the diplomat.

The Transnistrian supreme soviet [parliament] has also expressed indignation that the Ukrainian side has closed its railroad stations Slobodka-export and Cuciurgan-export for Transnistrian freights and has excluded the stations from international registers.

The parliament criticized the president and government of Transnistria for their inefficient actions, which are “insufficient and mostly declarative”.

Infotag’s dossier: The said 2 stations, situated on the Transnistrian segment of the Moldo-Ukrainian border, have been excluded (since 2016) from the scheme of railroad freight traffic “because the constitutional authorities of the Republic of Moldova have no possibility to ensure a due control over them”. According to the new scheme, agreed on between the railroad authorities of Moldova and Ukraine, freights bound for the Transnistrian region are now delivered there via other railroad stations on the Moldo-Ukrainian border and by using Moldova’s rolling stock.