CHISINAU, April 17. /TASS/. Moldova’s attempts to squeeze out the Operational Group of Russian Forces (OGRF), which ensures a peacekeeping operation and protects ammunition depots in Transnistria, are destructive and escalate tensions in the security zone of the conflict, said Transnistrian Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatiyev.
"We need to understand that the OGRF and the peacekeeping mechanism are interrelated. This is a single unit, because the OGRF provides security for the warehouses in the village of Kolbasna and the rotation of peacekeeping battalions. Strikes, restrictions on activities, attempts at intimidation - they certainly have a negative impact on the course of the peacekeeping operation," Ignatiev said on the First Transnistrian TV channel, commenting on the message of Moldovan parliament Speaker Igor Grosu that the OGRF command was declared undesirable in Moldova.
Ignatiyev said that the unrecognized republic sees Moldova's actions against the OGRF as "unmotivated and destructive."
About 1,000 OGRF soldiers and officers in Transnistria support the peacekeeping operation and protect the warehouses, where over 20,000 tons of ammunition taken there after the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from European countries are stored. Their removal and disposal was blocked by the Transnistrian authorities in 2004 after the aggravation of relations between the two banks of the Dniester.
