SECURITY

We are under an obligation to provide security to the Republic of Moldova, because Romanians also live there, PM Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday. The previous day the Romanian Foreign Ministry firmly condemned the statements made by the Russian-installed governor in occupied Kherson, Vladimir Saldo. The Romanian diplomacy says in a Twitter post that „such statements addressed to the Republic of Moldova, but which also refer to a part of the territory of Romania, a member of NATO, are unacceptable” and that „targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime.” The reaction comes after Saldo threatened that the Russian army could attack a bridge over Prut River, in response to an alleged Ukrainian attack on one of the bridges connecting Kherson to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea annexed by Moscow 9 years ago. Chisinau has summoned the Russian ambassador to the Republic of Moldova, Oleg Vasnetsov, for explanations. Created on some of the eastern Romanian territories annexed by Stalin’s Soviet Union in 1940, the Republic of Moldova proclaimed its independence from Moscow in 1991.