The EU is to allocate another 40 million euros to Moldova’s army, following new revelations about Russia’s efforts to topple the pro-Western government. Much of the sum will be spent on the purchase of a “long-range mobile ground surveillance radar” to help Moldova monitor its airspace, according to an internal EU memorandum dated March 13, quoted by the EUObserver.
The rest of the money will be allocated for high-mobility light tactical vehicles, buses, trucks, communication equipment, as well as anti-hacking hardware and software equipment. The amount will be paid “rather quickly”, EU sources said.
The money will come from the European Peace Fund (EPF), a joint fund of 8 billion euros created by EU countries, most of which is spent on Ukraine.
Procurement for Moldova will be managed by Estonia, through the Defense Investment Center. Germany, Romania, Great Britain and the USA are also helping the Republic of Moldova to strengthen its armed forces on a bilateral basis, the EU document also states, according to the quoted source.
The United States “will likely increase its substantial commitment in 2023 to a level close to, but below” the new EU grant of 40 million euros, the memorandum said. On the other hand, Moldova intends to buy “an aerial surveillance radar system, in addition to the radar proposed as part of this assistance measure”, the information note states.
The radar purchases come after Russia has fired several missiles through Moldovan airspace to hit targets in Ukraine in recent months. The EU and the US have doubled down on warnings that Russia is planning a coup in Moldova to oust its pro-Western leaders, who applied for EU membership last year.
“In recent months we have seen that Moldova has increasingly become a target for Russia’s actions – foreign interference, disinformation, hybrid attacks. The purpose of these actions is to undermine and destabilize the country, to undermine the pro-reform government and administration , anti-corruption and pro-EU from Moldova,” said a spokesperson of the EU’s external action service on Monday.
He made these statements after the police from the Republic of Moldova arrested seven people on Sunday, suspected of being “saboteurs” trained in Russia.
The police from the Republic of Moldova announced on Sunday, a few hours before the demonstration, that they had arrested members of a network “orchestrated by Moscow” with the aim of destabilizing the situation in the republic, according to international media.
The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Moldova announced on Saturday that it confiscated a total of over 4.5 million Moldovan lei (approx. EUR 220,000) following the raids carried out on representatives of the ŞOR Party (populist, pro-Russian) in the file regarding the illegal financing of this formation founded by the controversial oligarch Ilan Shor, convicted in 2017 to seven years and six months in prison for fraud and money laundering, who fled the country and is wanted internationally, reported TV8.md and NewsMaker.