Refugees – On May 6, 2022, within 24 hours, at national level, 80,741 people entered Romania through the border points, out of whom 8,072 are Ukrainian citizens (on the rise by 4.3% compared to the previous day) – the Border Police General Inspectorate (IGPF) announces. Through the border crossings with Ukraine, 4,579 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania (by 10.4% more), and through the border with the Republic of Moldova 1,555 (by 3.5% more). Since the onset of the Russian troops’ invasion, on February 24, and until Friday, at midnight, at national level, 874,988 Ukrainian citizens had entered neighboring Romania. As of February 10, 2022, in the run-up to the war, 909,517 Ukrainians had entered the country.
Trans-Dniester – The so-called authorities in the pro-Russian separatist region of Trans-Dniester, in the east of the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking population), announced on Saturday that four explosions took place, on the eve, near a former airfield in a village of Trans-Dniester on the border with Ukraine, Voronkovo, Râbnița district. No casualties were reported, according to the so-called secessionist Interior Ministry, which added that a team of investigators was on the ground. The village of Voronkovo, Vărăncău in Romanian, is located about five kilometers away from the border with Ukraine. In recent weeks, fears have escalated that the war in Ukraine could extend to Trans-Dniester, especially after a Russian general claimed that Moscow’s offensive was also aimed at establishing a corridor to the separatist region. In turn, Kyiv has accused Russia of trying to destabilize Trans-Dniester in order to justify military intervention in the area. Trans-Dniester de facto got out of the control of the central authorities after an armed conflict that left behind hundreds of deaths and was ended by the intervention of Moscow’s troops on the side of the secessionist rebels in 1992, less than a year after Chisinau had declared its independence. The former Russian President Boris Yeltsin had pledged to withdraw troops from Trans-Dniester since the 1999 OSCE summit in Istanbul. Some 1,500 Russian soldiers and important arsenals are said to still be there.
