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of the Nazis in the Second World War.
The source pointed to possible mass ri-
ots in the capital to coincide with a mili-
tary operation. “It’s very easy to create
a pretext in Moldova,” he said.
A report titled Operation Z by Jack
Watling and Nick Reynolds at the
Royal United Services Institute said the
debate within Russia’s Federal Security
Bureau (FSB), the main spy agency, was
about destabilising Moldova to tie
down Ukrainian forces on the southern
border. This would counter growing
pro-European sentiment in the coun-
try and show the West that support for
Ukraine risks wider consequences,
including in the Balkans.
On April 7, the Moldovan govern-
ment banned the display of Russian
military symbols. The report said
Ukrainian intelligence had received re-
ports that Major General Dmitry Mil-
yutin of the FSB was discussing a pro-
test movement in Moldova that would
“use the banned symbols” to create a
basis “for allegations the government
was clamping down on free speech”.
In a speech on April 22, Russia’s
Major General Rustam Minnekaev
said control of southern Ukraine would
provide “another way out to Transnis-
tria” where Russian-speaking people
were being “oppressed”.Russian authorities in the occupied
Ukrainian city of Kherson have intro-
duced the rouble as the region’s curren-
cy in their bid to bring it under the eco-
nomic and political power of Moscow.
The move came as the internet failed
in the city for reasons that are not clear.
According to the new Russian-in-
stalled administrators of the region,
who have replaced elected officials, the
rouble will be introduced over a period
of four to five months as the local cur-
rency, the hryvnia, is phased out.
Kherson was the first big Ukrainian
city to fall to the invaders, and it did not
suffer the catastrophic destruction that
has befallen Mariupol to the east. In-
habitants of the city, which is predomi-
nantly Russian speaking, have not re-
ported war crimes of the kind that have
been uncovered in now-liberated
towns close to the capital Kyiv.
Its position, at the mouth of the Dni-
eper River on the Black Sea, gives it
great strategic importance in Russia’s
effort to seize the whole of the Black Sea
coast and consolidate its 2014 annexa-Rouble used as weapon in Kherson
tion of Crimea. Contrary to earlier ru-
mours, Russia does not appear to be
poised to hold a referendum in the city
to legitimise the declaration of an inde-
pendent “People’s Republic” like those
in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Small protests have demonstrated a
lack of support for the invaders. The
former mayor of Kherson, Ihor Koly-
khaiev, who was ousted after refusing to
co-operate with the Russians, told a
Ukrainian news agency that Moscow is
more likely to link it with Crimea to the
south. “What I see,” he said, “there
won’t be a referendum.”
He also expressed scepticism about
the feasibility of imposing the rouble.
Local people who are receiving the cur-
rency for salaries and pensions are re-
portedly converting it into hryvnia as
an act of defiance.
“I have no confirmation that it’s been
introduced,” he told the BBC. “When
can it appear? When the Treasury and
the banking system of Ukraine will stop
working?
“Anything can happen under occu-
pation, I can’t get into Russia’s head to
find out what they are thinking.”“Russia has sought to legitimise its
control of the city and surrounding
areas through installing a pro-Russian
administration,” Britain’s Ministry of
Defence said in an intelligence briefing.
“Recent statements from this admin-
istration include declaring a return to
Ukrainian control ‘impossible’... The
statements are likely indicative of Rus-
sian intent to exert a strong political
and economic influence in Kherson
over the long term.
“Exerting control over Kherson and
its transport links will increase Russia’s
ability to sustain its advance to the
north and west and improve the secur-
ity of Russia’s control over Crimea.”
Russia also accused Ukraine yester-
day of killing its own civilians in shell-
ing of the Kherson region. There was
no immediate response from Ukraine
to the report.
Elsewhere, Russian forces destroyed
a runway at the main airport in the
southwestern city of Odesa on Satur-
day, Ukrainian officials said.
President Zelensky vowed to rebuild
it, saying: “Odesa will never forget
Russia’s behaviour towards it.”Richard Lloyd Parry KyivNews War in Ukraine
Target Moldova: Putin ‘plans
Larisa Brown Defence Editor
Volunteers learn how to
use weapons at a
Territorial Defence Force
facility outside Lviv in
western Ukraine. In Irpina boy of ten attends
the grave of his father,
who died fighting to
defend the city in the
north of the countryPHOTOGRAPHS:
MIKHAIL PALINCHAK EPA;
LEON NEAL GETTY IMAGESRussia will try to open a new front
against Ukraine from Moldova as the
war threatens to spill into more territo-
ry, Ukrainian military sources say.
A source outlining Moscow’s expect-
ed plan said a “number of indicators”
pointed to an attack on Moldova in the
near future. A takeover of the country,
which has an army of only 3,250 sol-
diers, would lead to Russian troops
moving into Odesa, Ukraine’s Black
Sea port, from the west, he said.
“We believe the Kremlin has already
taken the decision to attack Moldova,”
the insider said. “The fate of Moldova is
crucial. If the Russians start to take con-
trol, we will... be an easier target.”
Tensions are already rising in Trans-
nistria, a breakaway Moldovan region,
after a series of mysterious explosions
blamed on terrorists. Transnistria,
which borders southwest Ukraine, is
under the control of pro-Moscow offi-
cials. It was formed in 1990 after the
Soviet Union broke up and Moldova
took a pro-West stance.
Western officials believe Russia’s
long-term objectives may be to create a
land bridge from Russia, along the coast
to Transnistria, cutting off Ukraine
from the Black Sea.
The military source believes Russia
will go further and try to exacerbate
tensions in Moldova to take over the
country entirely. The claims could not
be independently verified. Other west-
ern officials believe the Kremlin has not
yet given up its ambitions towards Kyiv,
the capital of Ukraine.
Melinda Simmons, Britain’s return-
ing ambassador to Kyiv, said President
Putin was unlikely to have given up on
his goal of capturing the city — despite
shifting his military focus to the east.
“Politically, I don’t doubt that Putin’s
objectives for Ukraine have not
changed, even though their tanks had
to withdraw back to the north from
Kyiv,” she told The Observer. “I can also
see that the Kyiv city administration
and the Ukraine armed forces are not
taking that gain for granted at all. And
they’re right.”
Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest
countries, is not a member of Nato but
borders Romania, which is. It is grap-
pling with an influx of refugees and the
economic fallout of the war, which has
stopped nearly 15 per cent of its exports.
The Ukrainian source said intelli-
gence suggested that Russians were
preparing for conflict at the airfield in
Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria.
Western officials believe about 1,
Russian soldiers are in the country.
The insider said the airfield was plan-
ning to accept Ilyushin-76 transport
aircraft and possibly helicopters. “That
means they are preparing an airborne
landing operation and there is a high
probability the airborne troops will be
delivered from Crimea,” he said.
The mission would have to fly over
Ukraine, raising the prospect of troops
being shot down by air defence systems.
The Russians are expected to create a
“pretext” for intervention in Moldova
on or around May 9, the date of Putin’s
Victory Parade to celebrate the defeat
BLACK
SEAMOLDOVAUKRAINEROMANIA50 milesTransnistriaOdesaChisinau Tiraspol