The Moldovan Delegation to the Joint Control Commission (JCC) is signaling another case of illegal presence of troops from the Operational Group of Russian Forces (OGRF) in the Security Zone, the Delegation said in a press release.

In connection with unauthorized drills held in the Zone yesterday and the day before, Moldova’s chief peacekeeper traveled there, yesterday in the morning, together with OSCE Mission representatives to monitor the situation. Despite traveling in vehicles displaying Peacekeeping Forces and OSCE insignia, before the monitors could make it to the site of the drills, they were pulled over by a “military patrol” composed of seven soldiers in unmarked uniforms, who impeded the group from proceeding further.

The patrol members eventually revealed that they were OGRF troops. Half an hour later, enough time to cover any trace of military presence in the Zone, the patrol withdrew, leaving the monitors in a fog.

The OGRF sentinel was patrolling the Security Zone without the required approval of, or coordination with the JCC and the Joint Military Command.

The Delegation says that these actions by the OGRF, which are the latest in a series of violations of the established monitoring and peacekeeping mechanisms in the Security Zone, amount to repeated provocations escalating tensions in the Zone.

The Delegation firmly urges all the JCC components to comply with the obligations in the Security Zone arising from the 1992 Agreement on the Principles of the Transnistrian Conflict Peaceful Settlement.