SANTA MONICA, Calif. – In 2014, Russia officially annexed Crimea into the Russian Federation. Seven years later, President Putin unleashed his military and in 2021 invaded Ukraine with the hope of bringing the former Soviet state into the ever growing Russian Federation.
Is Russia continuing to march across Europe?
Last week, President Zelensky of Ukraine shared that his government possessed information stating that Russia planned to invade neighboring Moldova as part of their quest for domination through global expansion.
Earlier this week, Moldovan President Maia Sandu, said that a plot by Russia to use “external saboteurs” to wreak havoc and “derail Moldova form joining the European Union,” would “not succeed.”
According to Sandu, “The plan for the next period involves actions with the involvement of diversionists with military training, camouflaged in civilian clothes, who will undertake violent actions, attack some state buildings, and even take hostages,” she told reporters. Considering Russia’s penchant for working with the Wagner Group, one can easily imagine that organization would be activated in Moldovan IF the allegations were true.
If successful, the Russian Federation would then have almost total control of the area surrounding Ukraine.
Earlier today, the Moldovan government briefly closed their airspace after an unidentified balloon, possibly not dissimilar to the ones recently shot down by the United States, crossed into their airspace. Prior to the balloon sighting, a Russian missile crossed into Moldovan on its’ way toward Ukraine.
Russia denied the accusations that the balloon was theirs.
AP photos courtesy of Alexander Zemlianichenko and Aurel Obreja. Some informational content courtesy of AP, The BBC, Brookings Institute, The New York Times, The Washington Post, PBS, and Google.