Moldovan parliament speaker says ammunition at Cobasna used by Russia as argument to maintain troops in Transnistrian region

Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu says that the volume of ammunition stored at Cobasna was presented by the Russian Federation as an argument for maintaining its military presence in the Transnistrian region, but data analyzed by Moldovan institutions shows that the situation was “more inflamed than in reality.” The speaker emphasized that the Intelligence and Security Service’s (SIS) report on the Cobasna depot would be presented to European partners.

Igor Grosu said that the Moldovan authorities had been analyzing the situation at the Cobasna depot for some time, including in order to understand the position of the Russian Federation. According to the speaker, whenever Moldova requested the withdrawal of Russian troops and a reconsideration of the peacekeeping mission’s status, Moscow repeatedly invoked the risk posed by the ammunition stored at Cobasna.

“The discussions or analyses regarding this depot started a long time ago. We were trying to understand and analyze the position of the Russian Federation. Whenever we raised the issue of withdrawing the contingent and reconsidering the status of the observer mission, the main argument they brought was the bogeyman of the depot, God forbid. This prompted us to carry out research, a study, because we had, pro bono, accepted this argument since 2005; we accepted it too easily at that time, given that such storage sites exist not only here, but also in Russia and Ukraine,” Igor Grosu said.

According to Igor Grosu, the amount of ammunition in the depot has decreased over time, including due to consumption during exercises and the activities of the Russian Operational Group of Forces, as well as of the military or paramilitary formations in the Transnistrian region. Grosu estimated that the volume of ammunition had fallen to around 20,000 tons, while ammunition with exceeded validity term was evacuated during the period when this could still be done by rail. In his opinion, these elements indicate that the danger associated with the Cobasna depot has been exaggerated in Moscow’s rhetoric.

“What was most valuable was certainly evacuated when this could be done by rail, transiting Ukraine, and all this pointed to the conclusion that things were more inflamed than in reality. Obviously, this omnipresent argument has lost importance. Without their presence—how many are left there?—300 people, strictly Russian military personnel. It is very good that our institutions have produced this report. We will present it to our European partners as well, who were sometimes more sensitive than we were,” the parliament speaker said.

The Cobasna ammunition depot holds approximately 14,000 gross tons of armaments (including packaging and crates), while the net quantity of explosive substance is only 2,800 tons—a volume much smaller than previously cited. These figures were presented by the Intelligence and Security Service and the Military Intelligence Agency (AIM) and were included in the report titled, Cobasna: Separating Myth from Reality, made public by the two institutions. The report highlights that the Cobasna depot constitutes a risk, but a limited and controlled one, and does not represent “an existential threat to the region, as it has been repeatedly portrayed on geopolitical purposes.”