The interior ministry of the region said that shots were fired from Ukraine in the direction of the depot, and two drones were sighted from Ukraine.
Several shots were fired from Ukraine's border with Transnistria into the territory of the self-proclaimed republic and in the direction of a huge arms depot, its interior ministry said on Wednesday. Two drones were also seen in the area.
The ministry spokesman said on April 27 that shots were fired from Ukrainian territory in the direction of Kolbasna village at 8: 45. Transnistrian officials said no casualties had been reported as a result.
In a separate incident preceding the alleged Wednesday shooting, several drones were seen over the village of Kolbasna overnight, according to the ministry. The drones have been launched from Ukraine into Transnistrian territory, according to the Transnistrian authorities. Since the predominantly Russian-speaking region became de facto independent from Moldova after a war in 1992, Russian peacekeepers have been stationed there.
Speaking to Russian media outlet Interfax, the Russian contingent spokesman described the situation as calm, adding that several shots were fired from an assault rifle on Ukrainian territory. A local media outlet reported earlier on Wednesday that there were shots in the vicinity of an arms depot near Kolbasna village. The depot was set up back in the 1940s, with the bulk of the weapons and ammunition that are currently stored there dating back to the early 1990s, when Soviet troops were withdrawing from the former German Democratic Republic GDR Czechoslovakia and other countries of the former Warsaw Pact. At least some of the forces leaving Europe left behind in Transnistria. According to Russian peacekeepers guarding the depot, approximately 20,000 tons of ammunition and weapons are stored in the warehouse, more than half of which are so obsolete that they cannot be used or even transported.
According to the president of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic PMR, Vadim Krasnoselsky, said the latest spate of terrorist attacks in the region had been traced back to Ukraine. Krasnoselsky called on Kiev to investigate the armed groups that had allegedly infiltrated his region and hit several targets there since the beginning of the week, citing the results of a probe conducted by local authorities.
The Transnistrian leader hypothesizes that those who arranged this assault aim to drag Transnistria into the conflict. That same day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed concern over the latest developments in the region, and said Russia was watching the situation very closely. The self-proclaimed republic was put on terror alert on Tuesday by the Transnistrian government after a series of attacks. On Monday, the local security service s office in Tiraspol was hit with a disposable rocket launcher and a military base in Parkany was targeted in a separate incident. There were no casualties reported as a result. The assaults followed several explosions on Tuesday. Two radio masts were blown up in the village of Mayak.