President Maia Sandu warns about an intense campaign to disseminate fake news with the aim of presenting the refugees as aggressive persons who profit from their position. There is a risk of internal destabilization in Moldova when particular cases involving refugees are generalized and the idea that the Ukrainians are aggressive is imbedded. President Sandu called on all the citizens to be vigilant and to verify such information using a number of sources, IPN reports.

Maia Sandu said there are no risks of Moldova being involved in the military conflict in Ukraine for now and there are no signs of military preparations in the Transnistrian region. The foreign partners that anticipated the war in Ukraine do not warn about similar risks in Moldova.

“There is a lot of false information that is disseminated with the aim of scaring the people and my request is to use more sources of information. No one can say precisely how things will develop in the region. But the information we possess, including from international partners, does not point to any military operation. We remember that the relevant reports concerning Ukraine were very clear. There are no preconditions that would generate concern. We must be vigilant, but not scared and panicked,” President Sandu said in the talk show “Shadow Cabinet” on Jurnal TV channel.

The official said the danger of destabilization comes from inside the Republic of Moldova. A harsh campaign to denigrate the Ukraine refugees has been witnessed the last few days. These are presented as aggressive and ungrateful.

“I see an increasing number of attempts by persons and group of people to destabilize the situation in the country, including as regards the refugees. False information has been spread over the Internet the last two days. Those reports can be true in individual cases. But they generalize and present the refugees as aggressive and profiting persons,” said President Sandu, calling on the people not to allow to be manipulated by this campaign as it is aimed at destabilizing the situation.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, approximately 146,000 Ukrainians entered the Republic of Moldova during February 24 - March 3 and over 80,000 of them crossed Moldova on their way to other countries. More than 65,000 Ukrainian refugees, 24,000 of whom are children, stopped in Moldova.