EU countries announced on Monday 24 April the dispatch of a civilian mission to Moldova in order to strengthen the capacity of this neighboring country of Ukraine to deal with attempts by Russia to destabilize.
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Pro-European Moldova, which borders Ukraine, has repeatedly accused Moscow of seeking to overthrow its government through anti-government protests, which Russia has denied.
Forty experts deployed
"
With Moldova being one of the countries most affected by the fallout from Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, we are witnessing an upsurge in Russian attempts to destabilize Moldova through hybrid actions,
" declared Josep Borrell, the head of diplomacy of the European Union.
“
The deployment of this new mission is another important political sign of EU support in the current difficult circumstances
,” he added.
The mission will include around 40 experts from EU countries, said a European diplomat.
It will be deployed in Moldova by May for a period of two years.
It should benefit from an allocation of 40 million euros from the European Peace Facility, the fund set up by the Member States to finance their security and defense policy operations.
“Possible Russian interference”
Several experts in cybercrime and crisis management will participate in this mission to help Moldova prepare to fend off possible interference from Russia.
The EU is also considering imposing sanctions on Moldovan oligarchs accused by pro-Western authorities of helping Moscow destabilize the country.
Moldova, a former Soviet republic, part of whose territory, Transnistria, is a pro-Russian separatist enclave, applied for EU membership last year, at the same time as Ukraine, and obtained the candidate country status.
In May, it will organize the 2nd summit of the European Political Community (EPC) in Chisinau.
