'There is a very imminent danger, actually, to Moldova,' a senior European official told the Washington Examiner. 'It's so important that Ukrainians keep all their positions in that direction.'
A non-NATO country on Ukraine's southwestern border, Moldova has a population of about 3 million and would be by all accounts powerless to stop the Russian army if it continued its westward advance. While it would represent yet another invasion of a sovereign nation by Russian President Vladimir Putin, there is little reason to think he would be deterred by further international outrage.
An assault involving Moldova could have dramatic military, political, and humanitarian consequences. The country has welcomed more than 330,000 Ukrainian civilians imperiled by the two prongs of the Russian offensive in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, according to international monitors, about 100,000 of whom remain in the country.
"So, why are they trying to attack Mykolaiv?" the senior European official said."To surround Odessa from the north, to take Odessa, and to establish some sort of a permanent sea-plus-land corridor towards Transnistria. And then Moldova would be extremely endangered." "Moldova, with all my [good] sentiment to that country, because I know people from Moldova — these are really good people, very nice people, very peaceful people, you know, but Moldova is really, actually, unprepared for such a kind of aggression," the senior European official said.
"Of course, it's a vulnerability," she said."We do not have information so far which would confirm the intention for those troops to be involved in some military actions in Ukraine.""You've seen the response that we've helped to mobilize around the world to Russia's aggression against Ukraine," he said."Whenever and wherever that aggression might appear, we will do the same thing.