What Moscow and Tiraspol signalled in late July 2022
A look back at two statements on Russian aims and Transnistria's status that framed the diplomatic picture around 22 July 2022.
What were officials in Moscow and Tiraspol saying about territory on 22 July 2022? Two statements from the days around that date gave an answer.
On 22 July 2022, Transnistrian Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatyev reaffirmed that Transnistria was committed to becoming an independent state. He added that it was open to the possibility of uniting with Russia in the future.
Two days earlier, on 20 July 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country's military goals were no longer limited to the Donbas region. In his account, they now also included the Kherson region, the Zaporizhzhia region and a number of other territories, as reported at the time.
The two statements came from different places and concerned different matters. Lavrov addressed the aims of the war launched by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, while Ignatyev spoke about the future status of Transnistria. Both were made public within the same few days in July 2022.
