The Prime Minister of Moldova, Natalia Gavrilita, resigned this Friday, prompting the fall of the government, justifying the decision with the various crises caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At a press conference held last Friday, Gavrilita said that “it is time to announce his resignation”, adding that no one expected his government, which was elected in the summer of 2021, to face “so many crises due to Russian aggression should rule. in Ukraine”.
The outgoing prime minister’s tenure was marked by a series of problems, including an acute energy crisis, skyrocketing inflation and several incidents, such as missiles crossing her skies.
A new government will be appointed by the president, Maia Sandu, but the executive has yet to be approved by parliament.
On Friday morning, the Ukrainian military caused two Russian cruise missiles to fly over the airspace of Romania, a NATO country, and Moldova before entering Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian army chief of staff Valery Zaluzhnyi, the two missiles were “launched from the Black Sea” and “crossed Romanian airspace” at around 00:30 (Lisbon time) before entering Ukrainian airspace.
Romania indicated that the information from the Ukrainian official was “not yet confirmed”, but Moldova announced that a missile had entered its airspace and summoned Moscow’s ambassador to Chisinau, Oleg Vasnetsov, who classified the action as “an unacceptable violation” of the country.
“Russia continues its aggressive war against Ukraine,” and “missile attacks on the neighboring country have a direct and negative impact on the lives of Moldovan citizens,” said a statement published on Chisinau’s diplomatic portal.
Moldova was the subject of debate on Thursday at the European Council meeting in Brussels in the presence of the Ukrainian president.
At the meeting, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had recently intercepted a plan by the Russian secret services to destroy Moldova, Ukraine’s neighbour, adding that he had already warned President Maia Sandu.
“When I received this document, I immediately warned Moldova about this threat to protect it. I believe you would all do the same. I don’t know if Moscow gave the order to go ahead with this plan, but it is very similar to each other to the one they wanted to implement in Ukraine,” he said. Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president also added that the intercepted documents detailed “how, when and where” the attack was supposed to take place, noting that the aim was to take control of Moldova.
The Moldovan prime minister has already confronted Moscow in recent days after Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov argued that the West intends to turn the former Soviet Republic of Moldova “into the next Ukraine”, even stating that there were plans to integrate into NATO. or to merge in Romania.
Faced with these statements on Tuesday, Natalia Gavrilita, together with European Union (EU) diplomacy chief Josep Borrell, deplored the Russian minister’s statements, noting that “the statements made by Minister Lavrov were worrying and did not take into account respect the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Moldova”.
“The citizens of Moldova said at the polls which direction they wanted for our country, they decided our development model and said they wanted the European way. Their will must be respected and we must implement their political will,” he said at the end of the meeting of the EU-Moldova Association Council.
“We will do everything we can to preserve peace and stability in our country and we believe that such statements violate international law and Moldova’s right to self-determination,” he concluded.
For his part, Borrell complained that Lavrov, “who was once a respected diplomat, continues on this path that discredits him intellectually.”
Tuesday’s meeting between the EU and Moldova was the first since Moldova was granted official status as a candidate country for the European Union and Russia began military aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Source: DN
