Moldova accuses Russia of moves to destabilise it

BUCHAREST - Moldova’s intelligence service said on Thursday that Russia was acting to destabilise the former Soviet country, following comments by Ukraine’s president that Kyiv had intercepted a plan by Moscow.

“SIS confirms that, both from the information presented by our Ukrainian partner and also from our operative activities, subversive activities with the aim of undermining the Republic of Moldova, of destabilisation and violating the public order were identified,” Moldova’s Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,

addressing a European Union summit earlier on Thursday,

said Kyiv had “intercepted the plan for the destruction of Moldova by Russian intelligence”.

“This document shows who, when and how it is going to break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova,” he said, adding that he had immediately warned Chisinau.

He added that Kyiv did not know “whether Moscow indeed gave an order to follow that plan”.

The SIS statement said the intelligence service could not give any more details “because there’s the risk of jeopardising different ongoing operational activities”.

“We are reassuring Moldova’s citizens that all the state’s institutions are working at full capacity and won’t allow this kind of provocation,” it added.

Meanwhile, Moldova said a Russian missile violated its airspace on Friday morning, and it summoned the Russian ambassador to protest.

This came as Mr Zelensky said several Russian missiles had flown over Moldova and Nato member Romania on Friday, and that they were a challenge to the military alliance and collective security.

But Romania denied the claim that a Russian missile had crossed into its airspace, an incident that risked escalating tensions with Nato as the Kremlin launched a barrage of attacks across Ukraine. 

Romania’s Defence Ministry said the authorities detected an aerial target on Friday, most likely a cruise missile, launched from a Russian warship in the Black Sea near Crimea. The object re-entered Ukrainian airspace after crossing into neighbouring Moldova without breaching Romanian territory, it said. 

Like many former territories of the Soviet Union, Moldova is the backdrop for a tug of war between pro-Russian and pro-Western political currents, with President Maia Sandu’s government firmly in the latter category.

The country of 2.6 million people wedged between Ukraine and Romania

applied to join the EU

just after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

Russia has troops in

Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.

“Our institutions are working to ensure the country’s security and are using all the informational help of partners to anticipate and prevent any attempts to undermine our state,” said a press release from Ms Sandu’s office.

Last December, Moldova’s spy chief Alexandru Musteata warned of a “very high” risk of a new Russian offensive towards his country in 2023 and said Moscow still aimed to secure a land corridor through Ukraine to Transnistria. AFP, REUTERS