Saboteurs in civilian clothes and hostages: Sandu reveals Russian plan uncovered by Ukraine

Maia Sandu, President of Moldova, has confirmed that the Ukrainian side conveyed to her the Kremlin's plans to destabilise the situation in Moldova and that forceful actions involving saboteurs from outside the country, from Russia, Belarus, and the Balkans, were being prepared.

Source: Newsmaker citing Sandu during a briefing 

Quote: "This is a short-term plan that involves sabotage involving persons with military training disguised as civilians. They are planning violent actions, including attacks on some state institutions and taking hostages," Maya Sandu said.

According to Sandu, the materials transferred by Kyiv contain detailed documentation of the logistics for organising these sabotage actions.

"The plan envisages the use of people from outside the country for violent actions in Moldova. For example, the materials contain instructions for citizens of the Russian Federation, Belarus, Serbia, and Montenegro to enter Moldova," the president added.

Sandu also said that an attempt to seize power in Chisinau is being prepared under the guise of peaceful protests.

The president added that the security forces of Moldova are preparing to prevent these provocations and are keeping the situation under control.

Background: At the EU summit in Brussels, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian intelligence had intercepted the Kremlin's plans to take control of Moldova, after which the Ukrainian leader immediately passed all the information to his counterpart, President Maia Sandu.

"We don't know if Moscow was ordered to act according to this plan against Moldova. But we saw what they were going to do. We recognized in this exactly what they were already trying to do against Ukraine, against other states, in particular in Europe. Nothing new," Zelenskyy said.

Russia has repeatedly made sharp and rude attacks against Moldova and the Moldovan leadership, in particular after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Among the latter, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, said that they are trying to make a "second Ukraine" out of Moldova, which was sharply commented on by the state’s foreign affairs department.

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