Ukraine: The explosion in Transnistria is a Russian false flag operation

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says in a press release that Monday’s explosion in Transnistria at the Security Committee building was a false-flag operation by Russia’s top-secret service FSB, according to a press release. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Intelligence Department claims that the FSB’s aim, which blames Ukraine for the blast, is to create panic and „anti-Ukrainian feelings” in Transnistria and invent a pretext for armed intervention in the breakaway region of the Republic of Moldova.

• Why this is of importance. Russia’s involvement of Transnistria in the war against Ukraine would be a de facto drawing of Moldova into the conflict. It would be very difficult for Chisinau to maintain its current position of neutrality if Russia were to heat up the frozen conflict in Transnistria, which Moscow has controlled for 30 years. Political calculations would then become extremely complicated for Romania as well.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence cites correspondence between two Transnistrian officials on 22 April. In the letter submitted by the Ukrainians, Vadim Shmalenko, secretary of the Transnistrian Emergency Commission, asks a local governor, Volodimir Bychkov, for details of preparations for sheltering the population for emergencies.

„It is obvious that this is a case of provocative measures organized by the FSB to create panic and anti-Ukrainian feelings. The perpetrators will justify the war on the territory of Ukraine or involve the Transnistrian region in hostilities, either to mobilize reservists or to launch attacks on Ukrainian territory,” the Information Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said in the quoted communique.

The explosion was reported on Monday in Tiraspol, in the building of the Security Committee, following an attack with grenade launchers. The Moldovan government said there were no casualties.

The explosion occurred on the same day that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in Moscow that Russia sees „no risk of escalation” in Transnistria.

Transnistria separated from Chisinau after the fall of the Soviet Union, it has its own currency and institutions, and the territory has a population of about half a million people. The area is dependent on Russia, which has military troops stationed on the territory of the pro-Russian separatist region.