TIRASPOL. April 4 (Interfax) - Transdniestrian Foreign Minister Nina Shtanski and Russian Ambassador to Moldova Farit Mukhametshin visited the Pervomaisk customs checkpoint on the Ukrainian border on Friday to make sure there are no military preparations on Transdniestria's part.
"From the Transdniestrian side, we have not seen any military units, no movements which would attest to Transdniestria's preparations for some 'military operations'. What we saw was a normal peaceful life of people who want to work in peace and visit one another. Media outlets claim the opposite. I think, it is time to stop that," Mukhametshin said, according to the Transdniestrian Foreign Ministry.
Transdniestria invited the heads of all diplomatic missions, including Ukraine's, accredited in Chisinau, to visit the border area, Shtanski said, for her part.
"We are well aware of the claims by highest-level Ukrainian representatives about Transdniestria forming and consolidating some armed groups near the border. There were even official forecasts regarding an attack by these groups on Ukraine from the Transdniestrian territory. Probably, it is because of them that Ukraine tightened border control and took blockade measures with regard to the Russian passport holders residing in Transdniestria. To resolve the current situation we invited virtually all the ambassadors accredited in Moldova, representatives from the Ukrainian Embassy, international organizations so they could see how things are on the border. Yet today we, with Farit Mubarakshevich, went up the observation tower alone," the minister said.
"Threats never emanated from Transdniestria, either towards Ukraine or elsewhere for that matter. We have traditionally friendly, fraternal relations with Ukraine and I hope we shall be able to go back to them in the very near future," Shtanski added.
Earlier Ukrainian politicians accused Tiraspol of massing its forces on the border and recruiting Transdniestrians as servicemen for the Russian Army's operational group in order to destabilize the situation in the Odessa region. In mid-March Ukraine closed entry to for Transdniestrian men aged between 17 and 65, who were in possession of Russian passports.