Moldova needs to be armed according to NATO standards so that it can withstand a potential Russian attack, said British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

According to her, Britain’s allies are already discussing how to help small states, in particular Moldova, protect themselves from the military threat from Russia.

While Putin hasn’t made massive strides in Ukraine, he’s not abandoning his ambition to expand “Great Russia,” Truss told the Telegraph newspaper.

Moldova, a former Soviet republic, has no common borders with Russia, but the country is very close to the regions of southern Ukraine that are now occupied by Russian troops.

Recently, a series of explosions took place in the Moldovan enclave of Transnistria, controlled by pro-Russian separatists, which became a wake-up call for the country’s authorities.

Moldova is not a member of NATO, but it applied for EU membership less than two weeks after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I would like to see Moldova equipped according to NATO standards,” Truss said. “We are now discussing this with the allies.”

When asked if Russia poses a threat to the security of Moldova, Truss answered in the affirmative.

“Putin has clearly stated his ambitions to expand the territory of Russia. The fact that his attempts to take Kyiv were unsuccessful does not mean that he has abandoned these ambitions,” the head of the Foreign Office added.

Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe. A significant percentage of its inhabitants are ethnic Ukrainians (6.6% according to the 2014 census). And when hostilities began in Ukraine in February, Moldova took in more than 437,000 refugees from the territory of its neighbor.

For a country with a population of 2.6 million people, this is a huge figure. Based on the calculation per inhabitant of the country, it turns out that Moldova has received more refugees than any other country.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu adheres to strictly pro-European views. Her predecessor, Igor Dodon, pursued a pro-Russian policy – and he still has many supporters in the country.

Russia backs the separatists who control Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, where some 1,500 Russian troops are stationed.

At the end of April, a series of explosions and shelling took place on the territory of Transnistria. According to the enclave authorities, the building of the Ministry of State Security (a Transnistrian body that is not related to Moldovan structures) was damaged as a result and the Soviet-era towers that were used to relay Russian radio stations were disabled.

Tiraspol accused “persons who entered from the territory of Ukraine” of organizing the explosions, while Kyiv called them a provocation by the Russian FSB to incite anti-Ukrainian sentiment.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu , after an emergency meeting of the country’s Security Council, said that, according to the information available to the authorities, the forces of Transnistria itself are involved in the escalation of the situation in Pridnestrovie.

Just a few days before the escalation of the situation, Russian General Rustam Minnekaev, Deputy Commander of the Central Military District, made an unequivocal statement.

On April 22, he announced that Russia had entered the “second phase of a special operation” aimed not only at establishing full control over the Donbass, but also seizing the entire south of Ukraine.

“Control over the south of Ukraine is another way out to Transnistria, where there are also facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population,” the Russian general added.

In turn, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said that Moscow hopes to avoid a situation where it will have to intervene in the settlement in the region. This statement was perceived by many in Moldova as a blatant demonstration of the true intentions of the Kremlin, writes BBC journalist Anastasia Uspenskaya.

“There is currently no direct military threat to Moldova from the Russian army, but what is really present is a significant threat of subversive activities and actions aimed at destabilization,” Jack Watling, a military expert at the Royal Joint Institute for Defense Studies, said.

It makes good sense for Moldova to have equipment commensurate with the threat, Watling said in an interview with the BBC. He recalls that Russia has openly declared its intentions regarding the territories of Moldova, and, given this, it should be able to resist potential encroachments.

“It makes sense to be puzzled by this now, when there is time to prepare properly, and not later – when the problem is on edge, and the threat will sharply escalate,” Watling added.

Liz Truss has already said that the West should help Moldova , Georgia and other small countries build up their defense capabilities in the face of potential Russian aggression.

“If Putin succeeds, it will result in incredible suffering for the whole of Europe, and the whole world will face terrible consequences. We will never feel safe again,” she said at an Easter banquet in London in late April.

Truss also urged the West to increase defense spending, noting that the 2% of the GDP of the member countries of the alliance, which NATO aspires to, should become “the floor, not the ceiling.”

On Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also held a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, trying to convince him not to block Sweden and Finland from joining NATO .

The Turkish leader’s main claim is that the two countries are providing sanctuary to Kurdish groups that the Turkish authorities consider to be terrorists.

To keep getting BBC news, subscribe to our channels:

Download our application: