The Foreign Minister in Tiraspol has resumed the narrative about a blockade imposed on the separatist region and stated that children in Transnistria have died because of it. However, patients in Transnistria have access to clinics on the right bank of the Dniester, including the SMURD emergency rescue service.
NEWS: Several children in Transnistria who were born with cardiovascular diseases have died because Ukraine did not allow ambulances to take patients to emergency surgery in Kiev and Odessa, the Foreign Minister of the separatist republic, Vitali Ignatiev, has stated.
“Before that, our ambulances could go to Ukraine for urgent operations that are not performed by the Moldovan side. Unfortunately, we had several fatal cases, when children born with heart malformations died in clinics in Chisinau due to the lack of qualified doctors”, Ignatiev said.
The following are some of his accusations regarding the establishment of a blockade against Transnistria, following agreements between Chisinau and Kiev.
NARRATIVE: Ukraine is to blame for the death of children in Transnistria as a result of enforcing bans on access into its territories of vehicles with Transnistrian license plates. The Republic of Moldova is to blame too for supporting the alleged “blockade”.
LOCAL CONTEXT / ETHOS: As of September 1, Ukraine no longer allows access into its territory of vehicles with Transnistrian license plates. The measure implements agreements and understandings signed by Chisinau and Tiraspol since 2017. In April 2018, the parties signed an agreement that provided for the registration of cars on the left bank of the Dniester by the Chisinau authorities with “neutral” plates, meaning without either the identifier of the Republic of Moldova, or of the separatist republic, given that the Transnistria license plate identifiers are not recognized by any country, so they cannot be accepted in international traffic.
The registration and plate changing process began on September 1, 2018, and since then Ukraine postponed several times the introduction of bans on access into its territory of cars with Transnistrian license plates. However, Kiev announced that it would no longer allow access to Transnistrian cars on its territory starting September 1, even though Tiraspol and Chisinau had called for the ban to be postponed until early next year.
Tiraspol then accused Chisinau and Kiev of setting up a blockade against the region. However, in the three years they had to change their license plates, only 5% of car owners in the separatist region did so.
PURPOSE: To portray the pro-European governments in Chisinau and Kiev as inhuman and ready to sacrifice the lives of children in order to achieve their goals. To bring back into discussion the narrative regarding the so-called blockade against Transnistria, enforced by Chisinau and Kiev.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: It is an exaggeration and a nonsense to accuse Ukraine of killing children in Transnistria because Kiev authorities have decided to ban access into its territory of cars with registration numbers issued by a separatist region, financed and de facto supported by Russia, a state with which Ukraine is in a territorial dispute.
By the same logic, the US could be accused of killing children from Transnistria because it does not automatically grant visas to all the inhabitants of the separatist region that would like to have surgery overseas.
Moreover, it’s not clear whether Ignatiev’s statements refer to the deaths recorded in the Chisinau hospitals after September 1st, when Kiev enforced the restrictions, or in general.
The Chisinau Bureau of Reintegration has stated in a comment for Veridica.ro that, if need be, patients on the left bank of the Dniester can be taken and transferred to clinics abroad by ambulances from the right bank of the Dniester.
“Both ambulances and other emergency vehicles from the right bank that provide assisted transportation and specialized equipment respond to all requests and calls from patients or medical staff from the left bank of the Dniester.
At the same time, for any registered request, patients are transferred to qualified medical centers on the right bank (in Chisinau or other nearby localities) where they are provided with specialized medical care. If those centers lack advanced equipment or more complicated interventions are needed, patients are transported abroad, according to the bilateral agreements concluded by the Republic of Moldova with the respective states (e.g. via the SMURD service line). These interventions are carried out quickly and on a permanent basis, human lives are saved and health-care provided for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova on both banks, in compliance with the international standards and agreements in force.
The Republic of Moldova has not and will not apply any socio-economic or humanitarian blockade tactics upon its citizens on either bank of the Dniester. On the contrary, it takes all possible measures for the resumption of activities in the single national spaces and always provides various support measures for the inhabitants, in order to help them solve their most pressing problems (tax exemptions, humanitarian aid, vaccines against COVID-19, etc.)” a comment issued by the Bureau of Reintegration reads.
In fact, Chisinau and Tiraspol agreed in 2015 on the extension of the SMURD intervention area to the left bank of the Dniester, and the first such operation was carried out in early 2016.
GRAIN OF TRUTH: As of September 1, Ukraine has banned the entry into its territory of cars with license plates issued by an internationally unrecognized secessionist region.
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