VIDEO INTERVIEW “I fought Russia's strongest army.” The testimony of two Romanians who fought against Russian troops in Transnistria

“We saw with our own eyes why the Russians are in such a state. Where they go, dust remains behind”, says Sergiu Tătaru, a veteran of the war in Transnistria, from 1992. 34 years after the last confrontation between Moldovans and Russians, HotNews spoke with two of the combatants, both Romanian citizens, who fought against the Russian troops.

In 1992, shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Moldova faced an armed conflict in the Transnistria region. The separatist leaders there, supported by Russia and the 14th Army stationed in the area, rose up against the authorities in Chisinau.

Romania then condemned Transnistrian separatism and Russia's involvement and supported the Moldovan authorities in the fight. Also, several Romanian volunteers went to the front on the side of the forces from Chisinau. The fighting was fought in several localities on the banks of the Dniester and ended in the summer of 1992 with an armistice, but the Russian troops remained in Transnistria until today.

Who are the two Romanians?

On March 2, 1992, Vasile Lupu was a criminal investigation officer within the Ungheni Police Inspectorate. Along with other policemen from the city, he was sent to participate in the defense of the city of Tighina.

Sergiu Tătaru was in Russia, working, when the war started. Returning home, he enlisted in a carabinieri battalion formed in Ungheni and quickly arrived at the front line, in Coșnița, one of the localities where heavy fighting took place in that conflict. Today, the two believe that the solution to resist the Russian threat is the union of Romania with the Republic of Moldova.

“The Russian thinks that where he stepped is his land”

HotNews: You were combatants in the last Romanian-Russian war, in 1992, in Transnistria. What messages was Russia spreading before the confrontation?
Sergiu Tataru: There is only one thing being speculated: that Romania will take over the Republic of Moldova and that all the foreigners here will be persecuted. That was the fear instilled in the population, and the messages were addressed especially to Bulgarians or Russians. Of course, by playing with these feelings, Russia has awakened a kind of revulsion towards Romania, the Romanians, but also towards the population on the left side of the Prut.

Many people believed in this propaganda. And that's because we learned a different history at school, which said that the Romanians are our enemies, the ones who conquered us, together with Nazi Germany. No one ever told us that Romanians are our brothers, that mom and dad are across the Prut. You know, the history of Moldova is a thin book, which includes the Tatarbunar uprising (Bolshevik-inspired revolt in Tatarbunar, now on the territory of Ukraine, which demanded unification with the Ukrainian SSR and the end of the “Romanian occupation in Bessarabia”, nr), the story of Pavel Tcacenco (Russian leader of the communist movement in Romania in the 1920s, nr), about revolutionaries and about how the revolution was exported from Moscow to Moldova.

Vasile Lupu: Some Moldovans, our Bessarabians, to this day, still do not understand who the Russian is and continue to have this nostalgia for the Soviet Union. We, who have been through this ordeal, can say who the Russian is and what he can do. I tell you, if he reaches a territory, he considers that where he stepped is his land.

– You fought in Tighina against fighters supported by Russia…
Vasile Lupu: We were practically a kilometer away from each other. From there they were shooting at us continuously. They all came from Russia – we can say that because we had the opportunity to catch some of them. They were still confusing the battle positions and instead of aiming at them, they were coming at us. And they told us that they came to fight against the Romanians. You realize, from the bottom of Russia, I remember, from Tula, Ryazan, Rostov-on-Don.

“We will have breakfast in Tiraspol, lunch in Chisinau and dinner in Bucharest”

– Russia said it was acting in defense of the Russian-speaking population of Transnistria, was the official explanation. Does this sound like similar rhetoric to what we find in Ukraine today?
Vasile Lupu: It is the same baseless pretext to justify those ambitions of cotroping. They are taught to graze a territory, graze the horses while there is grass to graze on, then move on. This is specific to this nation, which I have never loved.

Sergiu Tataru: I would like every Romanian to understand that we are speaking, as witnesses, about the purpose and the plan of the Russians. We saw with our own eyes why they are able. I fought in a war where 300 or so guys died. It was a war of national liberation, in which we defended the most sacred things: the language, the tricolor and the ancestral land, which belong to us by right. I fought the strongest army of Russia. The 14th Army was then considered the strongest. And it is still on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. On Romanian territory.

Who do you think was in Tiraspol then, in charge of this gang? General Aleksandr Lebed, coming from Russia, after fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had been deployed to us because the Russians thought he would scare us. He said: “We will have breakfast in Tiraspol, lunch in Chisinau and dinner in Bucharest.” Our commander from Tighina then replied: before reaching Chisinau, Bucharest, you must first pass us.

These people still inhabit our land to this day. It hurts us, because a lot of boys who we remember today died then. The Dubasari police station was taken prisoner, and the 30 boys they found there were imprisoned in a small 2x3m room in Tiraspol. A cage. Our national hero Ilie Ilaşcu also stayed there. They resisted, they did not betray, they did not give in. They were mistreated in such a way that you cannot even imagine. They dressed them in bulletproof vests, put them against the wall and shot them with real bullets. This is the Russian, the creeper, where he goes, he leaves dust behind. Look at what I'm doing in Ukraine! They wiped out villages, entire cities, they destroyed everything. They are barbarians. If it wasn't Romania then, I tell you clearly, you wouldn't have talked to us today.

“If they take Ukraine, it won't cost them anything to move on”

– What do you answer to those who say that Russia defends its interests in Ukraine?
Sergiu Tataru: Russia does not defend its interests. Russia wants to restore its former empire. So to dominate all the territories that were previously cotroped by it. Bessarabia, parts of Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltic countries, are all threatened by the same danger of being forced back into this empire. Just as they were forcibly taken within the Soviet Union.

– Why is Transnistria kept in poverty?
Sergiu Tataru: I intuit that this territory is kept in poverty because Russia, at this moment, does not have enough forces to maintain it. All forces are directed to support the Ukrainian front. On the other hand, Russia always says that it will intervene in Transnistria. They are still betting that they will be able to break the front from Ukraine, reach Odessa and then open another front, in Transnistria. That is why I intuit that Russia is betting on this territory and is not giving in.

Vasile Lupu: I think they had this plan in place before the invasion of Ukraine four years ago. Putin thought that in three days he would take Kiev. Then, with the help of the Transnistrian army, take the Odesa region. Everything to completely close the exit to the Black Sea. Therefore, if Ukraine did not resist, we were also busy for a long time. And it is not known what the fate of Romania was.

They said that the Special Military Operation is related to denazification. They argued that the Russian population is humiliated in Ukraine, that they are not allowed to speak Russian, that they are persecuted. However, officials from the Russian administration say that it would also be about Moldova, and the Baltic countries, and Poland and so on. So we then ask ourselves a question: are all these territories where they live nazified and do they need to be denazified by them? Do they all have the same hatred for the Russian people? Are they all persecuting ethnic Russians?

– It is your fear that if Ukraine will no longer be able to withstand the war…
Sergiu Tataru: We are next, with you together. All of Romania. I tell you with certainty, not in jest. I would like everyone to understand that the Russian is not to be trifled with. And the only way out of this situation is to reunite our forces, to reunite the Romanian country. Let's be a strong and big country, big Romania.

Let us be prepared, let us have a strong army to retaliate against the enemy. Because the Russian will arrive and pass through Bucharest. Appetite comes by eating. If they take Ukraine, it won't cost them anything to move on.

And, with regret, we find that there are a lot of traitors in Bucharest as well, who tell us that it is possible to live well with the Russians. And that scares us a lot.