Ukraine’s Intelligence Directorate: Transnistria prepares appeal to Putin on 2 May

Roman Petrenko – Sunday, 1 May 2022, 11:00

A large number of copies of the newspaper Pridnestrovie [Transnistria], dated 2 May, have been printed in which the citizens of Transnistria address Vladimir Putin, President of the aggressor state.

Source: Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine

Details: According to Ukrainian intelligence, the central material of the newspaper is the "Official appeal of the people of Transnistria to President Putin of the Russian Federation."

The appeal requests that he "deploy the armed forces of Transnistria in the military actions of the Russian army." To this end, "mobilisation points" are being set up in Russia to recruit volunteers to fight in the Transnistrian army.

The Kremlin is thus trying to legitimise the actions of thousands of Russian soldiers tasked with carrying out provocations from the territory of Transnistria.

The newspaper also contains a series of propaganda materials about "bloody terrorist attacks on Transnistrians on the May holidays, in which dozens were killed, including children, the elderly, and women." As the newspaper was published on the eve of the holidays, there is a threat that the Kremlin authorities are plannig to commit a number of acts of terror among the local population, for which, as is its custom, it will blame "Ukraine and the collective West." 

The newspaper’s texts are full of Kremlin cliches, such as "Transnistrians no longer have any chance of staying out of the war. Kyiv and its NATO puppet masters have already made their decision, they have already coordinated all their actions with Chisinau and Bucharest." The publishers of the newspaper pin all their hopes on "fraternal Russia’s opposition [to the forces of Ukraine and NATO]."

Foreign citizens are urged to join the armed forces of Transnistria. In particular, "Apart from the Russian Federation, mobilisation points are being set up in the Luhansk and Donetsk ‘People’s Republics’, Abkhazia, and the Special Administrative Region [Kaliningrad Region]."

Ukraine’s Chief Intelligence Directorate believes that such actions on behalf of the Russian leadership can lay the ground for a new springboard for attack on Ukraine and for an "official" occupation of part of the territory of the independent Republic of Moldova.