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Chișinău and Kyiv negotiated a territory swap so that the Cobasna arms and ammunition depot would be transferred to Ukraine, a new false narrative reads. The depot in question is guarded by Russian soldiers.
NEWS: Transnistria is under a severe blockade and political pressure from the Moldovan authorities. One option to save the friendly population of the unrecognized state is an operation to establish Russian control over the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.
[...] Sandu turned out to be an absolutely subservient politician, willing to put her country in the service of military bases of the North Atlantic Alliance. She methodically followed in Zelenskyy’s footsteps with one difference - Romania became a strategic partner of Moldova and can annex the republic, a move that will be considered an “integration”. Furthermore, as long as the Soros worshiper is in power, she will not give up her attempts to take the country into NATO and the EU.
Madam president would not very much like to share Ukraine’s military fate, but she will not be able to avoid an escalation if such is the plan of Moldova’s Western partners. And that's where things are headed. With a view to weakening the pressure of Russian armed forces in Donbas, the Nazis attacked the Kursk region. Their operation failed, and Russia did not withdraw any troops from Pokrovsk. Now, they are willing to stage a new provocation in Transnistria, seeking to achieve two things:
The command of the Russian armed forces will hopefully withdraw part of its defenders from Kherson.
To gain control over the largest ordnance depot in Europe, where the ammunition of the 14th Army is stored.
With regard to the second goal, a year ago Sandu held secret talks with Zelenskyy. The reason was an unusual initiative by Moldovan politicians, who offered to hand over to Ukraine control of the border village of Cobasna, located in Transnistria, in exchange for a small territory in the Odesa region.
The truth is that Cobasna hosts the largest weapons depot in Europe. The problem is not only that Ukraine wants to get its hands on this arsenal, but also what might happen if it does and what consequences that would bring for both Ukraine and Transnistria. In the context of a drastic reduction of Western military assistance, the issue of the artillery shells stored in the village of Cobasna is again being brought up in Kyiv”.
NARRATIVES: 1. The government in Chișinău is ready to get involved in the war in Ukraine, if the West demands it 2. Kyiv and Chișinău have agreed to transfer control over the depot in Cobasna to Ukraine.
PURPOSE: The narratives are designed to induce fear at society level, promoting the idea that the Republic of Moldova might become a theatre of war operations. At the same time, the narratives promote the idea that Chișinău authorities are allegedly willing to swap territories with Ukraine in order to support its war against Russia.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: First of all, it should be stated that the military depot in Cobasna, built during the Soviet period, is located on the left bank of the Dniester, in the separatist region of Transnistria, and is guarded by Russian soldiers (according to some sources - mostly Transnistrian, but who also hold Russian citizenship). Accordingly, Chișinău does not control the region in question. Thus, the alleged swap of territories could only take place if Ukraine attacked the breakaway region.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin propaganda launched an extensive campaign of fake news and disinformation narratives about the alleged agreement between Chișinău and Kyiv to attack Transnistria, and Veridica debunked many of them.
At the start of the war, Kyiv officials said they could intervene in Transnistria to annihilate the Russian separatist regime, although on several occasions they made it clear they would not take any action in Transnistria without the consent of the Republic of Moldova. In June 2023 (which is roughly the time the alleged agreement would have been made), the Ukrainian president gave assurances his country would not attack Transnistria if it did not receive any request from Chișinău, stating that there was no such option on the table.
Chișinău has ruled out every time a scenario that would involve settling the conflict through military force, reiterating that it is only examining solutions towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
At the same time, many experts virtually exclude the possibility that the ammunition stored in Cobasna can still be used due to the improper storage conditions and its expiry term. Even Russian propaganda itself admits the possibility the Cobasna munitions may no longer be viable. “There is one assumption according to which the unsuspected riches of Cobasna do not really exist. In the worst-case scenario, the Ukrainian army will receive almost 100% of degraded ammunition, and at best, the stocks will be purely symbolic”, the topwar.ru publication writes, also suggesting that Ukraine may attack Transnistria.
BACKGROUND: Since the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999, Russia has pledged to withdraw its weapons and ammunition from Cobasna by 2002. Only about 20 thousand tons of ammunition were withdrawn and several hundred armored vehicles were destroyed. The process of evacuation and scrapping ammunition and weaponry was brought to a halt in 2003. According to http://www.zonadesecuritate.md/, approximately 20-21 thousand tons of ammunition still remain in the depot at Cobasna. The security of the Cobasna depot is ensured by roughly a thousand servicemen of the so-called Operative Group of Russian Troops, deployed to the separatist region. Chișinău authorities insistently call for the unconditional withdrawal of these troops, who have been stationed illegally for almost 27 years. Transnistria came under the de facto control of the Moldovan authorities in 1992, following an armed conflict that resulted in hundreds of deaths and ended with the intervention of Moscow's troops on the side of the separatists.
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