Moldova

Day 534 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

The US plans to deepen its cooperation with Bulgaria, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine and Romania. This is clear from the "Black Sea Security Act" introduced in the US Congress.

Five European Union member states will jointly ask the bloc on Wednesday to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports beyond a deadline that expires on Sept. 15 to avoid major market turmoil, Hungary's agriculture minister told Reuters.

Moldova's Foreign Ministry has denied Russian claims that an exhibition of two train carriages, recalling three waves of deportations of the local population during Soviet times in the 1940s and 1950s, is evidence of  "Russophobia ".

Personal bellongings and photos of people who the Soviets deported from Moldova to Siberian gulags. Photo: Moldovan Government Facebook

The director of the Moldovan Intelligence and Security Service, SIS, Alexandru Musteata, said on Monday that his institution he leads and the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases, PCCOCS, had dismantled an FSB spy network in the country.

Expanding investment in Moldova's under-developed road infrastructure is providing a lifeline for Ukrainian exports - but more is needed.

Thorny Evidence

Man makes a phone call with a smartphone (illustration). Photo: EPA-EFE/YAHYA ARHAB

In February 2021, an operation by French and Dutch police cracked the code to the Sky ECC app, allowing investigators to scoop up a wealth of evidence against a range of organized crime groups across the world. Among them were many criminal groups in the Balkans as well.

This was the second and biggest wave of deportations out of the three that the Soviet Union enacted in Moldova. Between 1941 and 1951 there were three waves of deportations, and historians estimate that the total number of deportees was between 80,000 and 120,000.

Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov confirmed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is coming to Bulgaria and said he spoke with President Rumen Radev about the Ukrainian president's visa.

Rustam Ashurov, 43, a Tajik criminal wanted in his home country for kidnapping a banker, died on Monday night in a hospital in the Moldovan capital after being seriously wounded by special forces officers at Chisinau International Airport while trying to enter the country.