Moldova Enters the “War-Willing Coalition”

Through the will of the ruling regime and Maia Sandu, Moldova has joined a group of countries whose sole objective is to prolong the war in Ukraine and intensify confrontation with Russia  

Semyon ALBU, RTA: At present, the ruling regime and its expert and media apparatus appear to be gripped once again by an acute wave of anti-Russian rhetoric. From high political platforms and across the media, there are constant calls for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops, for severing relations with Russia, and warnings about the expansion of the Kremlin’s hybrid war against Moldova. Recent events, of course, provided ample fuel for such rhetoric. It all began with a water crisis in the north of the country, caused by some kind of petroleum products entering the Dniester. What exactly happened remains unclear. Ukraine refuses even to share a list of the leaked hazardous substances, citing military secrecy, let alone reveal the source. Nevertheless, our leadership immediately blamed Moscow, staging another performance by summoning the Russian ambassador and ostentatiously showing him a bottle of polluted water. On top of that, the parliament adopted a declaration condemning Russia for “transboundary river pollution”. Yesterday, we faced the shutdown of the Vulcanesti-Isaccea power line, which is critical for the country’s electricity supply. As a result, there is a massive energy deficit in the system and a real prospect of periodic blackouts in the coming days. To avoid answering inconvenient questions, such as why electricity is not purchased from the MoldGRES or why the Vulcanesti-Chisinau “independence line”, built at a cost of tens of millions of euros, proved useless, the authorities rushed to channel public anger toward Russia, allegedly claiming it deliberately used drones to create tension inside Moldova. Perhaps the Kremlin did plan the attack in a way that would affect our country as well, although, these are just idle speculations of politicians scrambling to cover their own administrative failures. However, the attempts by Maia Sandu and PAS to play innocent in this situation are extremely hypocritical. After all, they have spent the past few years comfortably barking at what seemed like a wounded and sluggish bear from behind Ukraine’s back, imposing sanctions, staging demarches, harassing Russian citizens arriving in Moldova, leaving the CIS, refusing negotiations with Tiraspol, and so on. The list of such anti-Russian measures is very extensive, and listing them all would require a separate article. They have all been detailed on our portal, so I will not repeat them. All these actions were carried out with a presumed sense of impunity and immunity from retaliation. As we can see, that turned out not to be the case. It has now reached the point where some of our heated experts and journalists are seriously starting to utter the frightening word “war'” in relation to recent events. “War” against the obvious country. A “war” that the vast majority of citizens did not ask for and do not want under any circumstances. Yet it is a “war” that our leadership continues to drag the republic into, unable to see anything beyond the Brussels carrot. So, as was recently revealed, Moldova expressed a desire to join the so-called “coalition of the willing”. The first to announce this was French President Emmanuel Macron, which came as a major surprise to the Moldovan public. Only later did Mihai Popsoi’s office, after gathering its thoughts, state that Moldova had expressed a “willingness to contribute to international efforts to maintain peace in Ukraine after the cessation of hostilities”. The emphasis, they said, would be on training sappers and demining. Maia Sandu said roughly the same thing. At first glance, of course, there is nothing criminal. They are planning to help a neighboring country remove “dangerous metal” from its territory – a perfectly noble humanitarian effort, who could argue with that. Moreover, the “coalition of the willing” in black and white sets out to promote a peaceful settlement and provide strong security guarantees to Ukraine. But if you dig deeper, the situation takes on a completely different light. The coalition itself was created last year in response to Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Despite its official objectives, for more than a year it has primarily engaged in actions – such as plans to send troops to Ukraine – that have cut off Washington-initiated moves toward a peace agreement and sought to accumulate financial resources and weapons for the Ukrainian army. In fact, the continuation of hostilities, which is already an open secret, serves as the main guide for the United Kingdom and the EU countries, which largely make up this so-called “coalition of the willing”. The reason for this has been explained before. Insider reports suggest that Kyiv has been asked to continue fighting for another one and a half to two years, apparently in the hope of outlasting Trump and once again securing U.S. support. Judging by the fact that the Verkhovna Rada is being prepared to operate under wartime conditions for the next three years, Volodymyr Zelensky has responded to such requests more than favorably. This is hardly surprising given his long-known reluctance to end the war under the conditions proposed by the current U.S. administration. It must be said that the Europeans themselves, even without the support of their senior overseas partner, are adding fuel to the fire of the conflict, increasing sanctions pressure, permanently refusing Russian energy resources, attempting to expropriate Russian sovereign assets, and allocating €90 billion to Kyiv to continue the war. Particularly alarming are the European states’ attempts to disrupt Russian energy exports through the pirate seizure of tankers from the so-called “shadow fleet”. This has already prompted a response from Moscow in the form of a law on the extraterritorial use of military force to protect Russian citizens. Our beloved government is dragging us into such an aggressive club with a single interest – confrontation with Russia – while feeding the population lies about post-war demining of territories. As we can see, the coalition we are joining was not created for peace, but quite the opposite. Accordingly, our participation will imply something entirely different. In this context, everything happening in our security sphere – the rapid rearmament of the National Army and its transition to NATO standards, the construction of a massive base near Chisinau, the revival of the military airfield in Marculesti, where “unidentified flying objects” regularly appear, with legalized vertical take-off for aircraft (for what purpose?), and the introduction of mandatory military training for the population – takes on an entirely new meaning and significance. So, the next time Moldova suffers collateral damage from a drone strike, you will know the reason and whom to thank for it.