Explosions have occurred the past 2 days, in Transnistria, a separatist territory of Moldova. The first explosion took place in the Ministry of State Security building in the regional capital of Tiraspol, while the second one was aimed towards a broadcasting center in the village of Mayak. Thankfully, no injuries were documented in any of the attacks. These incidents occurred days after Moscow claimed that the Russian-backed region could be drawn into the war in Ukraine, while the attack was conducted by a grenade launcher, which was found on scene.
Before we look further into these two incidents, let's firstly analyze what Transnistria is. Transnistria, or officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, is an unrecognized breakaway state that is internationally recognized as part of Moldova. Transnistria controls the majority of the narrow strip of land between the Moldavian - Ukrainian border. Its capital is Tiraspol, which is also the largest city.
The region has been under the control of separatist authorities since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, which sparked a conflict between the newly independent Republic of Moldova and separatists who wanted to maintain relations with the Soviet Union.
No country, including Russia, recognizes the territory as independent, but the Moldovan authorities have no control over the area, which operates as an independent state.
Now that we've analyzed a few basics of the breakaway region of Transnistria, we'll try to see how that interferes with the Ukrainian - Russian war. According to Financial Times, "A senior Russian commander said last week that the Russian army’s move to capture southern Ukraine would open “another way to Transnistria”. Moscow has claimed “there are also instances of oppressing the Russian-speaking population” in Transnistria, an argument that was used to justify the invasion of Ukraine." To summarize, we shouldn't be surprised if another attack was planned against the Moldavian territory, in order to "save" the oppressed citizens. I guess you can see the similarities yourself, that's how the Donbas was "liberated" from Putin.
Russia is keeping 1,500 military personnel in the independent state of Transnistria, as a "peacekeeping" force, Ukrainian officials are afraid of a military advancement of these troops, however, my opinion is that such incident is highly unlikely, the number of troops in the region is insignificant compared to Russia's forces in Ukraine.
According to Al Jazeera, Zelensky on the other hand claims that Ukraine was only the beginning, and Putin will potentially try and seize territories in other countries as well, especially those who do not belong to NATO.
What are your thoughts? Was it a "random" incident, was it the citizens of Transnistria boycotting the Russians? Who knows...