Newsweek: Drone attack on helicopter in Moldova raises questions

An apparent drone attack on a breakaway region of Moldova, which borders Ukraine, has raised questions in a country already preoccupied with the potential spreading of the ongoing war westward into its territory.

On March 17, a broadcast channel run by authorities in Transnistria, Perviy Pridnestrovie, shared footage to its social-media channels appearing to show the moment a drone strikes a stationary helicopter on a military base, sparking a fire. Newsweek has as yet been unable to verify the footage.

Transnistria is an internationally unrecognized state, controlled by pro-Russian separatists from the city of Tiraspol. It sits in eastern Moldova, on the border with Ukraine. Russia has around 1,500 soldiers, including around 400 peacekeepers, deployed in Transnistria.

Relations have become increasingly strained between Tiraspol and the Moldovan government in the capital Chisinau, which has courted closer ties with Europe and is a candidate to join the European Union. The more than two years of war in Ukraine has heightened tensions and concerns in Chisinau.

Moldova's Bureau for Reintegration Policies said on Sunday that it had examined the footage. It said that the military equipment in the video had not been operational for years, and that it could not confirm any attack had taken place in the Transnistrian region.

"The incident in question is an attempt to provoke fear and panic in the region," the government department said, adding it had been in contact with Ukrainian officials.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Kyiv's military intelligence agency, described the incident in Ukrainian media reports as a "Russian provocation." The Ukrainian organization, the Center for Countering Disinformation, pointed the finger at Russia, saying: "The main logic behind the [K]remlin's actions is to escalate the situation with information, since [R]ussia has no corridor to Transnistria to carry out military provocations."

The U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said on Sunday that "unspecified actors" had launched a drone attack "amidst an assessed ongoing Kremlin hybrid operation aimed at destabilizing Moldova from within."

"It is unlikely that Ukrainian forces conducted the strike, given the limited means used in the strike and the insignificant target," the ISW added.

In February 2023, Moldovan leader, Maia Sandu, accused Moscow of machinating to "overthrow the constitutional order" in Moldova and using "saboteurs" to influence Chisinau's pro-European trajectory.

"The plan for the next period involves actions with the involvement of diversionists with military training, camouflaged in civilian clothes, who will undertake violent actions, attack some state buildings, and even take hostages," Sandu told the media. The White House then described the reports as "deeply disturbing".

Russia rejected Sandu's remarks, calling the allegations "absolutely unfounded and unsubstantiated."

In late February 2024, officials in the Transnistria region called upon Moscow to "implement measures for defending Transnistria amid increasing pressure from Moldova, given the fact that more than 220,000 Russian citizens reside in Transnistria."

Veteran Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said earlier this month that the Moldovan government "follows in the footsteps of the Kyiv regime." It was "cancelling everything Russian, discriminating against the Russian language in all spheres, and, together with the Ukrainians, also organizing serious economic pressure on Transnistria."