Russia may use Transnistria to block grain corridor from Ukraine - ISW

This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrinform saw.

On January 10, Reuters reported that the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanța shipped 36 million metric tons of grain in 2023. This is a record figure. At the same time, about 40% of these supplies were Ukrainian grain.

According to ISW, Ukrainian strikes on Russian Black Sea Fleet assets forced the Russian Navy to withdraw some ships from its main base in temporarily occupied Sevastopol in western Crimea.

This, in turn, has contributed to the effective use of the Black Sea grain corridor in Ukraine, as international support for this corridor continues to grow, despite Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the military threat from the aggressor.

The Kremlin may be instructing actors in the Russian-backed breakaway republic of Transnistria to create information conditions for a possible false flag operation in Transnistria as part of the Kremlin's broader efforts to destabilize Moldova.

The Kremlin may see a false flag operation in Transnistria as an alternative way to keep countries from participating in the Ukrainian grain corridor, despite Russia's weakened presence in the western Black Sea, the report says.

As Ukrinform reported, Moldovan President Maia Sandu said earlier that the Moldovan authorities want the Transnistrian conflict to be resolved only peacefully, and that if Ukraine wins the war unleashed by Russia, there may be a geopolitical opportunity to achieve this goal.