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Ukraine and its partners are working consistently to ensure that the Russian troops pull back from Transnistria, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin who spoke at a briefing in Zakarpattia region June 23.

"We are working consistently to ensure that there are no Russian troops in Transnistria. it's clear that a zone has been created there that's even worse than Russia, some kind of mixture with the Soviet Union in terms of the mentality and anything that's been going on there," Klimkin said, according to Gordon media outlet.

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"Remember those arson cases in Zakarpattia [the arson at the office of the Hungarian Culture Center in Zakarpattia]? It was organized by people from Transnistria. And who is in charge of Transnistria? …It's the Federal Security Service [of the Russian Federation] ... We will work with the Moldovan side to make everything really transparent and clear. All that we do in the "5 + 2" format, all that we do within the framework of the UN: Transnistria should become an integral part of Moldova. This is absolutely clear in the political, economic, and mental senses," said Klimkin.

On June 22, 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the complete and unconditional withdrawal of foreign military forces from the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Sixty-four countries supported the resolution, while 15 voted against it and a total of 83 delegations abstained.

An openly pro-Russian politician Igor Dodon was elected President of Moldova in November 2016. During the televised debate during his campaign, he declared that Crimea belonged to Russia.

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The predominantly Russian-speaking region of Transnistria in 1992 unilaterally proclaimed "independence" from the rest of Moldova. The self-proclaimed "independence" of Transnistria has not been recognized by any other state across the world, although the region enjoys substantial political, economic and military support from Russia.

After a brief war in 1992, in which about 1,200 people died, Chisinau totally lost control over the region. On the side of separatists, it was individual soldiers and entire units of the Russian army who took part in hostilities, with their weapons and military equipment at hand. In 1992, under a bilateral Russian-Moldovan agreement at the administrative borders between Transnistria and the rest of Moldova, a peacekeeping operation was launched with the participation of Russian and Moldovan troops, as well as armed formations.

International negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement are carried out in the 5+2 format (Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE plus observers from the U.S. and the EU).