Transnistria - A place you'll be hearing a lot about shortly...
The ongoing hostilities between Ukraine and Russia are about to expand into a tiny sliver of land called Transnistria. Officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), it is an unrecognized breakaway state that is internationally recognized as part of Moldova.
Transnistria controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dniester river and the Moldovan–Ukrainian border, as well as some land on the other side of the river's bank. Its capital and largest city is Tiraspol.
Transnistria has been recognized only by three other unrecognized or partially recognized breakaway states: Abkhazia, Artsakh and South Ossetia.
Transnistria is officially designated by the Republic of Moldova as the Administrative-Territorial Units of the Left Bank of the Dniester (Romanian: Unitățile Administrativ-Teritoriale din stînga Nistrului) or as Stînga Nistrului ("Left Bank of the Dniester") under Russian military occupation.
The present history of the region dates to 1990, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was established in hopes that it would remain within the Soviet Union should Moldova seek unification with Romania or independence, the latter occurring in August 1991. Shortly afterwards, a military conflict between the two parties started in March 1992 and concluded with a ceasefire in July that year.
THE "WAR" IN UKRAINE IS NOW ENSNARING TRANSNISTRIA: Over the past few days, there have been a series of explosions in Transnistria. Russian soldiers there are on a war footing now, Moldova is also on a war footing. There is a gigantic arsenal of Russian military weapons stored in Transnistra; weapons that Ukraine would like to get their hands on now that Russia has smashed most of Ukraine's military. Those weapons supplies would vastly improve Ukraine's ability to defend Odessa from the approaching Russian Army. [...] So it is beginning to look as though trouble is being deliberately started by NATO, through Moldova, against Russian-controlled Transnistra, over Ukraine. How's THAT for convoluted?