It will be soon a year of the start of the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine. It has been a year of harsh war, with hundreds of thousands of killed and injured people, including civilians and children, millions of refugees, internally displayed people and people deported to foreign places, tens and hundreds of localities that were fully or partially destroyed, critical infrastructure damaged on a large part of the territory of Ukraine, which left other millions of people without elementary living conditions in the winter: without electrical energy, heat, drinking water and food. This happened during a year alone, several tens or hundreds of kilometers away from the Republic of Moldova and this surely dramatically and dangerously influenced the life of people in the Republic of Moldova as well. Experts invited to IPN’s public debate “The Republic of Moldova in a year of the outbreak of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine: challenges, opportunities, solutions” discussed how the people in Moldova coped in the period and what role the political class in general and the government and political opposition in particular played, what changes occurred in the mentality and behavior of Moldova society, if such occurred.

Igor Boțan, the permanent expert of IPN’s project, said the Resolution of the UN General Assembly of March 2, 2022 described the war in Ukraine as unprovoked aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine. “If we speak about the status of the Republic of Moldova in these circumstances, I would name this exceptional status as the country is primarily governed by a commission for exceptional situation and we for about a year have lived under the state of emergency,” said the expert.

In accordance with the law, the state of emergency is a set of political, economic, social and public order maintenance measures taken in some of the localities or all over the country. “There is a suitable legal framework for this state of emergency. It was developed in time and was adjusted during the COVID-19 pandemic based on the Venice Commission’s recommendations of April 15, 2020. From this viewpoint, we can say that the Republic of Moldova’s legislation on the state of emergency was adjusted to the highest standards. If the nonstop extension of this state of emergency is justified or not is yet another issue,” stated Igor Boțan.

According to him, missiles launched by Russia against Ukraine fell for three times on Moldova’s territory and this can be an explanation for the prolongation of the state of emergency. The law provides that the CES also agrees the special regime for using Moldova’s airspace. “This is one of the main justifications for the extension of this state of emergency,” said the expert.

Oazu Nantoi, MP of the Party of Action and Solidarity, said the day of February 24, 2022 was preceded by a series of events, moves and statements. For example, the Moscow paper Kommersant in April 2008 published an article saying that “if Ukraine will one day try to join the North Atlantic Alliance, it will remain without important territories”. “We all know that in Russia there is now no opposition press, no alternative press and no free press and nothing appears accidentally on the websites of official news agencies. On April 3 last year, there was published an article entitled “How should Russia act towards Ukraine”. This clearly says that the Russian Federation should apply a genocide policy against Ukrainian ethics who consider themselves Ukrainians and should raze to the ground the Ukrainian state,” he said.

According to the MP, the frontal aggression against Ukraine was preceded by shocking diplomatic moves. On December 15, 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia that, in his opinion, long ago turned into a propaganda ministry, issued two ultimatums by which the United States and NATO were asked to return to the status quo of 1997. It was ascertained at European level too that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine started in February 2014.

“What we saw last February was massive aggression. The aggression moved to another phase. This aggression is aimed at liquidating the Ukrainian state at least. Yes, we can speak here about the failures of the regime of Putin, about the change of tactic, strategy, but today I saw the news item of the Institute for the Study of War, which says that Russia took over the strategic initiative in Luhansk region and launched an offensive. Ukraine fights back. To be sincere and realistic, Russia keeps the advantage in terms of cannon fodder,” said the MP

According to Oazu Nantoi, the Moldovan authorities since 2020-2021 have followed the situation in Ukraine with concern. “We then saw that the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state is unacceptable for the regime and a massive provocation was expected,” he stated.

The chairman of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” Dinu Plîngău said the Republic of Moldova is in a very difficult situation. Many of the developments are related to the war in Ukraine. Besides the devastating economic impact on Moldovan society, a lot of human capital has been lost since the war broke out.

“As regards the refugee crisis, I think our authorities haven’t made sufficient effort. A lot of the accomplishments, including the foreign level ones of which those from the government boasted, are due to the extraordinary, exceptional mobilization of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. You remember the thousands of citizens who stayed in customs posts with products, placards by which they offered accommodation. An extraordinary effort was also made by mayors and business entities to whom particular concessions were promised, but some of the promises weren’t fulfilled regrettably. Bu I realize it was a very difficult satiation for the authorities too. The human resources were dramatically insufficient,” stated Dinu Plîngău.

According to him, the integration of these persons into Moldovan society was one of the next challenges. As the Ukrainians know Russian, which is used in Moldova, and there are resemblances in mentality, the Ukrainians could find work here. Besides the human capital, there is also the economic one. Money came to the country together with many of these people. “Appropriate mechanisms should be identified to use the human capital and the financial resources that came to the Republic of Moldova. For example, concessions can be offered to legalize this capital and to invest in particular businesses. A lot of people who earlier ran businesses worth millions in Ukraine, hundreds of employee or experts with extraordinary skills came here, but their capacities are not appropriately used here. We can gain and they also can gain,” noted Dinu Plângă.

The public debate entitled “The Republic of Moldova in a year of the outbreak of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine: challenges, opportunities, solutions” was the 272nd installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.