Mircea Snegur: It was an unjust war which we didn't want and which we weren't ready for

From Info-Prim Neo archives 2010 18 years after the war, in 2010, Moldova's first President Mircea Snegur told Info-Prim Neo that the history of this war started on August 27, 1991, when the first Parliament voted for Moldova's independence. This fact aroused dissatisfaction on the left bank of the Nistru and all the constitutional institutions there were expelled. On March 2, 1992, when Moldova became a UN member, troops of the Transnistrian Guard and units of Cossacks attacked the police station in Dubasari, which was the last institution in Transnistria controlled by the constitutional authorities. The war that started that day was the only war in the world in which a country attacked by established armed forces was defending itself with police forces. “Owing to the combatants, Moldova could not be defeated by the Russian forces, mercenaries and Cossacks and remained an independent state,” Snegur said. Mircea Snegur is sure the Transnistrian separatists survived due to the support offered by Moscow. The chairman of the Russian State Duma Gennady Seleznyov in 2002 said that Russia provoked the conflict “in order to hinder Bessarabia's union with Romania.” Since 1992 until 1996, 150 units of military machinery had been transferred to the separatist forces from the Russian military unit deployed in the Transnistrian region. In a meeting on March 2, 2010, Moldova's first President Mircea Snegur thanked the participants in the war for being responsible and for fighting against the Russian bandits and local separatists. “March 2 was not selected randomly. On this date, the UN accepted Moldova as a member, showing that it recognized its independence and statehood,” Snegur said. 2009 “It was an unjust war imposed by hostile forces from abroad, a war which we didn't want and which we weren't ready for, in any way at all. We fought that war on unequal terms and I believe this day becomes more important with the years, because time makes us increasingly aware of those painful truths,” Mircea Snegur said in an event held at the Memorial “Eternity” on March 2, 2009. He added that added that everyone feels sad on this day, but also grateful for the deeds of those heroes. 2008 As the former Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the ceasefire convention, Russia confirmed the war of the spring and summer of 1992 was a Moldovan-Russian war, Mircea Snegur said in 2008, in a meeting commemorating the heroes fallen in the Nistru war. The meeting took place at the Memorial Complex “Eternity” on March 2, when it was 16 years of the start of the military conflict on the Nistru. Mircea Snegur said that on March 2, 1992, Moldova became a UN member and namely that fact determined one of the greatest powers, which had and has geopolitical interests here, to start a wicked war. According to him, Russia armed the separatists, trained them and on May 19 went to the battlefield with them. That tragic year, the blood of the heroes fallen for the country and nation shed the banks of the old Nistru, the first President said. ”You should have no remorse that you could do more,” Mircea Snegur told the veterans. In the conditions in which we were absolutely not prepared for war, especially with such a power, lacking an army, you did everything you could to defend the country from an invasion. Thanks to you, Moldova remained undefeated by the Russian forces, by mercenaries and Cossacks. It remained an independent state, and the history is to give the due appraisal of the sacrifices brought about.” 2007 In the meeting held in 2007, when it was 15 years of the start of the war, Mircea Snegur said the separatism from Tiraspol was successful only due to Moscow’s support. Within the Federal Council, when the Moldovan delegation refused to sign the union Treaty, Gorbaciov said: “Mircea, if you don’t sign the Treaty, you will end up having a Transnistrian republic, a Gagauz republic and some three more…” Snegur said. On June 21, 1992, the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin threatened to deploy troops if the conflict on the Nistru didn’t stop. The then Moldova authorities considered it was a declaration of war made by Russia, which provoked the “conflict”, generated, according to the ex-chairman of the Russian State Duma Gennady Seleznyov in 2002, “to prevent the unification of Bessarabia and Romania”.