Moldova’s delegation to the Joint Control Commission (JCC) calls on the member delegations to refrain from unilateral actions that can destabilize the situation in the Security Zone. The call was made in the last ordinary meeting of the JCC of the current session, IPN reports.

In a press release, the Commission says the call was made following the publication of information on the website of the Ministry of Defense of Russia. According to this, the personnel of the Operational Group of Russian Forces, which stays illegally on the left side of the Nistru, started to prepare for a military exercise to besiege the Nistru River. The exercise is to take place at the end of this month and will involve 50 soldiers and military vehicles, including armored tanks.

According to Moldova’s delegation to the JCC, the events planned unilaterally by the Operational Group of Russian Forces, which under the agreement of July 21, 1992 must respect the principle of neutrality, could thwart and compromise the peacekeeping operation in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova. “Regrettably, we ascertained that the representatives of Transnistria and the Russian Federation to the JCC, ignoring the call and showing disagreement with the aforementioned, refuse to assume responsibility for avoiding provocations in the Security Zone during the period of the vacation,” says the press release.

In the last meeting, at the suggestion of Ukraine’s delegation to the JCC, colonels Stanislav Akseonov and Grigorie Ceredaiko, lieutenant-colonel Alexandru Kulalaev and majors Pavel Jikola and Sergey Savin were confirmed as military observers. Simultaneously, the Commission dismissed five Ukrainian military observers in connection with the expiration of their mandates. The JCC also examined and approved the weekly report on the situation in the Security Zone, which was described as stable.