“The so-called humanitarian aid provided by a number of Russian political and state institutions to the Transnistrian region can be qualified as planned ‘PR-action’,” Moldova’s Ministry of Reintegration says in a commentary.

According to the Ministry, Igor Smirnov, leader of the breakaway Transnistrian region, with the help of force structures personally blocks the activity of region’s enterprises that’s why his assertions regarding ‘a humanitarian catastrophe’ represent ‘primitive blackmail’. The temporary unblocking of the border for importing the goods that constitute the main share of region’s re-export proves the political character of the steps taken by the Transnistrian administration.

A similar commentary was Wednesday issued by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry. It called the humanitarian aid sent by Russia to Transnistria as ‘evident provocation’.

Over 20 trucks with medications and basic commodities left for Transnistria from Russia on Wednesday. On Thursday, Smirnov sought humanitarian aid from Belarus President Alexandr Lukashenko.