​TRANSNISTRIA NOT GOING TO ATTACK EITHER MOLDOVA OR UKRAINE – PRESIDENT SHEVCHUK

The Transnistrian Moldovan Republic has always waged a peaceful external policy and has never planned to attack anybody – neither Moldova nor Ukraine, president of the unrecognized PMR Yevgeny Shevchuk stated in an interview with the RTR Moldova – the Moldovan subsidiary of Russia’s second-largest television and radio corporation.

Shevchuk stressed that Transnistria proceeds from its long-standing state-approved defense doctrine.

“But if international political mechanisms are adopted one day in the future, which will guarantee our security by 100%, we will even consider a possible reduction of our armed forces because they take a very serious portion of our budget”, said Yevgeny Shevchuk.

“But today, the situation does not permit this: the Moldovan army holds field exercises in the Transnistria Security Zone, and invites NATO experts for training Moldovan army subdivisions. Against this backdrop, we are vigilantly following the rhetoric by Moldovan supreme military commanders and politicians who demand to withdraw Russian peacekeepers from the Security Zone”, said Yevgeny Shevchuk.

“All this is only undermining our confidence in the proclaimed “good intentions” of politicians in Chisinau office. It is impermissible to sharpen the situation when there is such a multitude of contradictions, or to concentrate attention on the military components that guarantee security to Transnistria and to the citizens of Moldova living in the immediate proximity to the Security Zone. This is alarming us. We believe there must be no aggressive statements, if Chisinau really has a strategy of pragmatic policy towards Transnistria”, said Yevgeny Shevchuk.

In his words, Tiraspol feels a certain anxiety about the instable situation in Ukraine. In such conditions, Transnistrian power structures are naturally developing their plans of defense of the Transnistrian republic.

Shevchuk dismissed assertions about the allegedly growing intensity of military field and other exercises in Transnistria.

“Exercises have always been. Simply, last few years they receive a greater media coverage, which circumstance is evidence to our grown transparency”, said Yevgeny Shevchuk.