The European Union plans to provide lethal military aid to Moldova, EU Ambassador to Moldova Janis Mazeiks told reporters in Chisinau on April 10.
Moldova, like its neighbor Ukraine, is an EU candidate country. Tensions between Moscow and Chisinau have been mounting since February 2022 amid fears that the war may spill into Moldova via Transnistria, a Moldovan territory occupied by Russian troops since the early 1990s.
Speaking ahead of the International Mayor's Summit in Chisinau, Mazeiks said that EU military aid to Moldova has been helping Moldova reform its military for several years.
The European Peace Facility, first adopted in December 2021, provided Moldova with 7 million euros (now $7.6 million) to support its military's medical capabilities and de-mining.
The EU adopted another 40 million euros (now $43.4 million) in June 2022 to broaden the scope of this support, strengthening the Moldovan Armed Forces' logistics, cyber-defense, drone units, and command and control.
This support effectively doubled Moldova's defense budget, according to Mazeiks.
"In the past, our support has been non-lethal equipment, so it has been about demining, about hospitals, about communications equipment, about vehicles, but this year there is a plan also to have the lethal components," Mazeiks said.
Moldova has also received bilateral military support from countries like Germany and the U.S. since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a bilateral defense deal in March, laying the groundwork for future military training, intelligence sharing, and increased defense consultation between the two countries.
Macron pledged France's "unwavering support" for Moldova in the face of the threat from Russia.
Elsa Court
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