In the small, selfproclaimed Republic of Transnistria, a region of Moldova whose independence is not recognized by any country in the world, there is little evidence that a war is raging just a few miles away.
Mykolaiv, one of the Ukrainian cities most frequently bombed by Russian forces, is just 150 kilometers from Tiraspol, the region’s selfproclaimed capital. Transnistria was closely linked to the Soviet Union and today owes its existence to the economic and military aid it receives from Russia. Fears have been circulating for weeks that the Russian army could use Transnistrian territory as a base for attacks on Ukraine from the south.
In Tiraspol, however, there are no signs of an exceptional situation and life in Transnistria seems to be going on as usual: as always, the boys are playing football in the park dedicated to Catherine II, the Russian empress, who is the founder of the city, and people of every Alter spend their local rubles in bars and restaurants, which are valuable only in this narrow, about 400kilometer strip of land between the rest of Moldova and Ukraine.
(Valentina Lovato / The Post)
Relations between the 500,000 inhabitants of Transnistria and Russia are close, but also with Ukraine.
Russia pays the elderly in Transnistria an additional pension and supplies gas at controlled prices to heat their homes. Tiraspol is full of statues dedicated to Soviet generals and Russian flags. But about a fifth of the people living in the small selfproclaimed republic have Ukrainian citizenship and know relatives and friends who had to flee their homeland due to the Russian invasion. Keeping the two together is not easy: this is perhaps why the Transnistrian government neither condemned nor supported the invasion of Ukraine. It’s as if the entire territory experiences a moment of limbo.
However, some traces left by the ongoing war can be seen. A few minutes’ walk from the city center, an association of volunteers, My ryadomy (‘On Your Side’), is helping the selfproclaimed government coordinate the reception of people arriving in Transnistria after fleeing Ukraine.
According to the association, around 9,500 refugees from Ukraine are currently arriving in Transnistria. Dmitri Voroniuc, head of the volunteer department at Myryadomy, says many of them come to Transnistria “because the cost of living here is lower than in Chisinau,” the capital of Moldova, or because they already have a network of family and friends to look to to be able to rely on someone.
Such is the case of Natalia, who arrived in her car from Odessa a few days ago with her ninemonthold baby. She came here because her husband was born in Transnistria and several relatives still live in the area. She receives diapers and baby food from My ryadomy, which are distributed together with other baby products at the club’s headquarters. Like many other Ukrainians who have stayed in Moldova, Natalia hopes to soon return to Odessa, where she left her homeland and her parents.
The material that My ryadomy distributes to refugees comes mainly from private donations or from local companies: also because Transnistria is largely isolated on a political and institutional level and the international NGOs that have mobilized to organize the reception of refugees in Moldova , for example, you do not have access here. My rjadomy is basically based on what she gets from the likes of Sergei and Natalia, an elderly couple who donated some baby blankets and shoes.
(Valentina Lovato / The Post)
Sergei has worked as an orchestra conductor and speaks Italian well, but he seems more interested in talking about his old job than the moment this piece of the world is experiencing.
“We are absolutely sure that the peacekeeping forces working here can assess the situation,” explains his wife Natalia, referring to the hundreds of Russian soldiers stationed in Transnistria since the end of the civil war against which the proRussian forces were fighting proMoldovan forces in 1992.
Sergei and Natalia (Valentina Lovato / Il Post)
The subject of war is treated with great circumspection by all. When asked if it is easy for people living in Transnistria to keep separate the fact that people are fleeing Ukraine because they are invading an allied country like Russia, Voroniuc replies that Transnistria sympathizes with Ukrainians, because they, in turn, fled their homes during the civil war, and that the “politics” and the “moral” obligation to help those in need remain at two different levels.
It is strange that Voroniuc defines a war that has claimed thousands of lives and millions of refugees in a matter of weeks as a “political” issue. But he probably doesn’t have much of a choice: My Ryadomy is a guest at the premises of Obnovlenie, a moderate by local standards political party that aligns with independence and the proRussian cause.
Dmitri Voroniuc (Valentina Lovato / Die Post)
The selfproclaimed government of Transnistria was also very careful with words when it came to commenting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The selfproclaimed President of Transnistria Vadim Krasnoselsky, also of Ukrainian descent, described the war in Ukraine as “uncomfortable” and “tragic” but never blamed Russia for the invasion. The presence of the Transnistrian security forces on the streets of the capital Tiraspol is very limited. “The Transnistrian media talks about how many refugees are arriving and how they are being supported by the government, but they do not provide information about the development of the war,” Luiza Dorohsenco, a journalist and director of an independent information center in Tiraspol, told the Post.
Some observers have speculated that the equidistance that Transnistria is trying to maintain also stems from the commercial interests of the sheriff, a corporate group run by some sort of proRussian oligarch that includes a chain of stores, gas stations and even a soccer team who defeated Real Madrid in the group stage of the Champions League a few months ago. Intervention alongside Russia would destabilize an already weak and very bad economy: in short, the sheriff would lose a mountain of money.
(Valentina Lovato / The Post)
“We have no indication that Transnistria, its security forces or Russian soldiers present there are preparing an attack on Ukraine,” Moldovan Foreign Minister Nico Popescu said recently. “Of course, if the Russians came to the Transnisters and said they owed them a favor, it would be hard to say no,” analyst Thomas de Waal, an Eastern Europe expert at Carnegie Europe, told Defense News.
Wandering the streets of Tiraspol and reading the latest developments in the local media, nobody seems to think of an imminent danger. Something might be moving beneath the surface, though. Anya (fantasy name) says that her parents, owners of two electronics stores, are afraid of the idea that the conflict could spread to Transnistria, “and that what happened in Odessa or Kharkiv in Ukraine could happen here: that makes her look very scared. In case we flee to the south of Moldova, where my family is from».