PRO-RUSSIAN SEPARATISTS in Moldova have claimed that an explosive drone hit a military base, without causing injuries or major damage, three weeks after an allegedly similar incident.
“Today at 14:35 GMT, a kamikaze drone attacked a military base of the ministry of defence of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic in the district of Rybnitsa, six kilometres from the Ukraine border,” the ministry for state security in the self-declared breakaway region said in a communique.
“The target was a radar station that suffered minor damage. A group of investigators is on-site,” it added, without directly blaming Ukraine.
Transnistria – a thin swathe of land between Moldova and Ukraine – broke away from Moldova in 1992 after a brief conflict.
Russia still has 1,500 soldiers based there, according to official figures, which it says are part of a peace-keeping mission.
An unauthenticated video purporting to be filmed by a witness was broadcast by pro-Russian media today.
It shows a small, unidentified flying object circling in the sky before crashing in an unknown location, with the sound of an explosion.
Moldova said authorities were analysing “all the images and information” related to the purported attack.
“The string of provocations in the region aimed at sowing panic and tension continues, including by drawing attention to the region,” Moldova’s reintegration bureau said in a statement published on Telegram.
On 17 March, Transnistria claimed that a drone fired from Ukraine hit a military base in its capital Tiraspol, accusations that Moldova denounced as an attempt to provoke panic.
Meanwhile, Ukraine had accused Russia of being behind the attack with the aim of destabilising Moldova.
Russia has since the 1990s supported the breakaway region, which is largely Russian speaking, unlike the rest of Moldova where Romanian is the main language.
Moscow frequently accuses Moldova and Ukraine of planning attacks on Transnistria, whose leaders in February asked for protection against what they said was “rising pressure” from Moldova.
Transnistria borders the Ukrainian region of Odesa, which Russian forces failed to occupy in the early months of their offensive in Ukraine.
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