2022 Transnistria attacks
The 2022 Transnistria attacks were a series of four attacks and incidents reported in the Eastern European breakaway state of Transnistria that occurred between 25 and 27 April 2022. No casualties were reported, but material damage did occur. Background. Speculation about the possible role that Transnistria may have in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has been made ever since the start of the war and even before, during its prelude. Already before the war, American officials accussed Russia of preparing "provocations" against Russian soldiers stationed in Transnistria in order to create a "casus belli" for a  Russian invasion of Ukraine. Further, in 24 February, on the first day of the invasion, there were allegations that some rockets that had hit Ukraine had been launched from Transnsitria, although Moldova's Ministry of Defense denied this. Later on 6 March, there were again claims that attacks that had hit Vinnytsia's airport had been launched from Transnistria, although Moldovan officials again denied this and said that they had been launched from Russian ships in the Black Sea. Amid rumors that Transnistria would attack Ukraine, the President of Transnistria Vadim Krasnoselski declared that Transnistria is a peaceful state which  never had plans to attack its neighbors and that those who spread these allegations were people without control over the situation or provocateurs with malicious intentions. He also made reference to the large ethnically Ukrainian population of Transnistria and how Ukrainian is taught in Transnistrian schools and is one of the official languages of the republic. However, on March, an image of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko standing in front of a battle plan map of the invasion of Ukraine was leaked. This map showed a supposed incursion of Russian troops from the Ukrainian city port of Odessa into  Transnistria and Moldova. In April, a week before the attacks in Transnistria, the senior Russian military official raised the issue of Russian speakers in Transnistria in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, echoing the Moscow's justifications for the war in Ukraine. The Major General Rustam Minnekaev, acting commander of Russia's Central Military District, told the plan of Russia's military action in Ukraine included taking the full control of Southern Ukraine, which could provide Russia with land access to Transnistria. He also talked about supposed evidence of "oppression of the Russian-speaking population" of Transnistria. Attacks . Security ministry building attack. The first explosions hit the headquarters of Transnistria's Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol, the republic's capital, at 15:00 GMT. The Militsiya blocked off the streets near the incident and instructed no one to approach. Preliminary reports described it as a grenade launcher attack. It was undertaken with RPG-18 and RPG-27 launchers. The latter are only used by the armies of Russia, Transnistria, Gabon and Jordan, which may suggest that it could have been perpetrated by one of the first two. On 26 April, a "group of patriots" as they called themselves of the  Ministry of State Security of Transnistria sent a document in Russian to the editorial team of the Moldovan newspaper "AVA" appealing to the Moldovan state authorities, to representatives of diplomatic missions in Moldova and to Moldovan and Ukrainian media and law enforcement institutions. This document included a list of people reportedly involved on the attack at the ministry building. It said that the attack had been organized by Razgonov Vitaly Leonidovich, an advisor to the president of Transnistria and a major general who joined Transnistria in 2019. He would have formed a network of people in Transnistria to destabilize the  region. These people involved in the attack, being eight in total and many with Russian citizenship, include Transnistrian government and army officials, civil servants and heads of organizations and media outlets, and all of them had their own pseudonyms. This text ended with the phrase "Let's keep peace at the Dniester together!!". On 27 April, TV PMR released a video on its Telegram account of the attack on the ministry building. The TV channel reported that unknown people arrived in Tiraspol in a car from the area of Grigoriopol after illegally crossing the border between Transnistria and Ukraine. It  also said that it only took 20 seconds for these persons to effectuate the attack and that the license plate of their car was EL 387 RJ. Posterior attacks. Two explosions in the Grigoriopol transmitter were also reported in Maiac the next morning, the first one at 6:40 a.m. and the second at 7:05 a.m, knocking out two radio antennae that broadcast Russian radio. On April 26, an army unit was attacked. Transnistrian authorities condemned the incident as terrorism. Later, on 27 April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Transnistria reported that drones flew over Cobasna and that shots were  fired on the village. The ministry claim that the drones came from Ukraine. Cobasna hosts an ammunition depot which is one of the biggest if not the biggest in Eastern Europe. The weapons stored are expired and if they exploded, the strength of the explosion would be similar to that of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is currently guarded by a group of around 1,500 Russian troops. No injuries have been reported, and no one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks. Aftermath. The day after the first explosions, Moldova's president held an extraordinary meeting  of the Supreme Security Council. The Moldovan government has ordered increased patrols and border controls, including at the Transnistrian border, and has increased security alert levels at critical infrastructure facilities. On the other side, the Transnistrian authorities have raised the terroristic threat level to "red" and established checkpoints in the capital. The Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez, who planned to visit the Prime Minister of Moldova on 28 April afternoon and the Prime Minister of Poland on the next day, cancelled both visits following the explosions in Transnistria. On 28 April, the Romanian politician Marcel Ciolacu announced that Moldova  and Romania would hold a meeting on a parliamentary meeting in one or two weeks in the context of the attacks in Transnistria. Following the attacks some Transnistrian residents reported receiving text messages on controversial topics such as the possibility of a referendum on reuniting with Moldova. There were also unverified reports that men under 60 would be banned from leaving the country, as in Ukraine following the onset of the war. The president of Transnistria denied these rumours about the situation on his Telegram feed. Some Transnistrians also received texts purporting to be from the Ukrainian armed forces claiming  an attack was imminent. Reactions. In Transnistria. Transnistrian deputy Andrei Safonov told TASS "the shelling of the building by a grenade launcher is an attempt to sow panic and fear," asserting that "attempts to put pressure on us have been observed before". Following the attacks, it was announced that the Transnistrian army had been put on maximum alert. On 27 April, during an interview by the Russian news agency Interfax, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Transnistria talked about the attacks and proposed ending the Transnistria conflict with Moldova by signing a "final comprehensive peace treaty" where mutual non-aggression  is guaranteed. In Moldova. Moldovan president Maia Sandu said the "escalation attempts stem from factions from within the Transnistrian region who are pro-war forces and interested in destabilising the situation in the region." Elsewhere. Following the attacks the Russia's deputy foreign minister hinted at an invasion of Moldova, saying he would "like to avoid such a scenario" in which Moscow was required to intervene, but that "certain forces" had created "a hotbed of tension". The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin told that Moscow should "take into account what is happening in Transnistria