The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova expresses its bewilderment at the behavior of the Operational Group of Russian Forces and says that this group stays on Moldova’s territory illegally. According to the Ministry, despite the insistent requests of the Moldovan authorities, this continues to stage different military activities that generate new tensions in the Moldovan-Russian relations, IPN reports.

Ina press release, the Ministry says that such behavior of the Russian troops, detached on Moldova’s territory without the consent of the Moldovan authorities, can be described only as defiance towards a sovereign state and as a serious violation of the international law principles.

“It is evident that this line of political-military behavior undermines the respect for the Russian Federation, which pretends to be playing a constructive and unbiased role as a mediator in the Transnistrian conflict settlement process. It is hard to imagine that someone believes the clanking guns can contribute to building confidence between the two sides of the Nistru and to creating a favorable atmosphere for holding the talks in the 5+2 format,” said the Ministry.

The Moldovan authorities express their hope that the Russian authorities will ultimately react appropriately to the repeated requests of Chisinau concerning the intensification of the military activities of the Operational Group of Russian Forces.

In these circumstances, the Russian troops should be fully and unconditionally withdrawn from Moldova’s territory, in accordance with the decisions of the OSCE Istanbul Summit of 1999, and pertinent negotiations should be started on the transformation of the current peacekeeping operation into a civil mission with an international mandate.