Officials and former combatants commemorated the victims of the Nistru armed conflict on March 2, when it was 22 years of the conflict’s start. After staging a march in central Chisinau and laying flowers at the Monument to Ruler Stephan the Great, the former combatants adopted a resolution by which the authorities are asked to be more active and to make effort to find solutions to the Transnistrian conflict, IPN reports.

President Nicolae Timofti in his speech said the hundreds of deaths and thousands of injured persons are the price paid for defending Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The country’s reunification is the strategic priority of the Moldovan authorities, while the process of modernizing Moldova will enable the people from the two banks of the Nistru River to come closer. An important part of Moldova’s territory remains occupied by foreign forces.

“The Transnistrian dispute remains the most tragic page in Moldova’s history. March 2 is the Memory Day. We today commemorate the 300 heroes killed in the war. We owe gratitude to those who lost their lives in this armed conflict. God rest them,” said the head of state.

Attending the ceremony, Moldova’s first President Mircea Snegur criticized Russia, reminding about the events in Ukraine, where Russian soldiers were deployed.

In the end, the former combatants had a commemoration meal.

The Nistru armed conflict claimed about 300 lives and caused approximately 3,500 invalids.