Politicians in Romania and Moldova have begun talking about the division of Ukraine and getting back historical territory, an echo of Kremlin rhetoric.
Former Moldovan President Igor Dodon is the latest to make comments about “Moldovan lands” now part of Ukraine after returning from a visit to Moscow.
His remark on Wednesday came after Romania’s Russia-friendly presidential candidate, Călin Georgescu, last week asserted claims over parts of Ukraine.
Dodon, the leader of Moldova’s pro-Russian Socialist Party, said he wanted to “point something out to certain politicians from the European Union, Romania, and others who are already dividing Ukraine’s lands.”
“First of all, the territories you’re referring to are historically Moldovan, some of them,” Dodon said.
He noted that these lands are now home to “hundreds of thousands of Moldovans” and that they speak the Moldovan language, the Soviet-era name for Romanian. Dodon still refers to the country as “Soviet Moldova” even though the bloc collapsed in 1991 and Moldova immediately declared independence.
“We, Soviet Moldova, were deprived of our status as a maritime state,”: after Soviet reforms “illegally” handed parts of the south and the north to Ukraine.
His comments on Wednesday come on the heels of an interview in Romania in which presidential candidate Călin Georgescu called Ukraine a “fictional state.”
He claimed that when Ukraine and Russia reach a peace deal, territory would be reapportioned in the region and Romania will be eligible for territories it held that were handed to the Soviet Union and are now part of Ukraine.
“The world is changing. Borders will change,” he said
The former diplomat and NATO skeptic later backpedaled on his remarks and said he was referring to an “absolutely theoretical hypothesis”.
Romania holds a rerun presidential elections in May, after the November ballot was canceled following intelligence reports of Russian interference. Moscow has denied meddling.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed its unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty following Georgescu’s statement.
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