Molotov cocktails were thrown on Sunday at the Russian embassy in Chisinau, where remote voting for the presidential election was taking place, according to Moldovan media.
The police announced that they had arrested a man suspected of having thrown two incendiary devices on Sunday.
“A man threw two containers of flammable substances over the fence of the Russian Embassy in Chisinau,” police said in a statement.
No injuries were reported.
In a video posted on the social network X, we hear an explosion.
A 54-year-old Moldovan national, who said he also had Russian nationality, was “immediately arrested” and detained for questioning, police added.
“He justified his action by a certain dissatisfaction with the actions of the Russian authorities,” she said, ensuring that the investigation was continuing.
Offices open in Transdniestria
The Russian presidential election, which concludes on Sunday, must renew President Vladimir Putin, at the helm of his country for 24 years, for a new six-year term, against a backdrop of conflict in Ukraine.
Chisinau protested last week against Moscow's decision to open several polling stations in Transdniestria, a pro-Russian separatist region of Moldova, a country of 2.6 million inhabitants located between Ukraine and Romania.
Pro-Russian separatists announced on Sunday that a military base had been hit in Transdniestria.
A Moldovan journalist published photos on the social network X.
Today, a fire occurred on the territory of a military unit in Tiraspol / Transnistrian region of #Moldova as a result of an explosion.
It was preliminarily established that the explosion occurred as a result of a kamikaze drone attack pic.twitter.com/jlAFJZCwk7
— Denis Dermenzhi (@iamdenya_de) March 17, 2024
“An explosion caused a fire on the territory of a military base in Tiraspol.
Preliminary (findings) established that the explosion was caused by a kamikaze drone attack,” said the Ministry of State Security of the self-proclaimed republic, cited by Russian and local media, specifying that the device came from the Odessa region of Ukraine.
A helicopter was reportedly destroyed.
Also read: Moldova: Transnistrian separatists demand “protection” from Russia, Moscow makes it a “priority”
Since the 1990s, Russia has supported this separatist territory of Moldova, a pro-European and Romanian-speaking country in the former USSR, bordering Ukraine.
Russia regularly claims that Moldova and Ukraine are preparing provocations or attacks there.
At the end of February, the Transdniestrian authorities asked Moscow for “protective measures” in the face of “increased pressure”, according to them, from the Moldovans.