Moldovan Chief Calls for War With Russia

The president of tiny Moldova called Monday for a declaration of war against massive Russia, and defiant Moldovan militants blew up a Russian munitions storehouse in their deadliest attack yet on Russian troops stationed there, reportedly killing 26.

Moldovan President Mircea Snegur denounced Russia for “seeking to be the policeman of the Commonwealth of Independent States” and told lawmakers at an emergency Parliament session: “We have to call a spade a spade: We are at war with Russia.”

Looming involvement by Russia, Ukraine and Romania threatens to turn what had been a localized ethnic struggle in the former Soviet republic between Moldovans--who are ethnic Romanians--and Slavic minorities into a full-fledged regional conflict.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, whose country borders on Moldova, stated Monday: “Today, one can now say succinctly that not just ethnic conflicts but full-blooded war is taking place in regions of the former Soviet Union.” Russia has generally tried to stay out of the chronic conflicts around its southern rim, but on Sunday, President Boris N. Yeltsin warned that Russians could not stand by as their brethren were killed in other former republics. Kravchuk made a similar declaration Monday, saying, “We can’t look on as people die.”

Fighting in Moldova was already reported to have left 300 people dead and 500 injured over the weekend as Slavic minorities fought Moldovans over the town of Bendery on the Dniester River. At least 20 more people were reported killed Monday morning as the Bendery battle continued, and the fighting showed no signs of diminishing.

Tanks and armored vehicles, allegedly supplied by Romania, moved in large columns toward the Dniester region, according to the Interfax news agency. The Russian Defense Ministry says Romania has sent Moldova 20 armored vehicles, scores of grenade launchers and even a pontoon bridge since April.

There were also reports that Moldovans were preparing to use the MIG-29 fighters they inherited from the Soviet air force to bomb the Slavic separatists.

Yeltsin’s warning Sunday, which he addressed directly to Snegur, appeared only to provoke the Moldovan leadership further.

“This declaration was an open interference in Moldova’s affairs,” Snegur told Parliament. “Personally, I am not cowardly, and I will not bow my head.”

As if expressing Moldovan defiance, saboteurs blew up a munitions storehouse belonging to the Russian 14th Army in Parkany, a town on the left bank of the Dniester. Officials said 22 soldiers and four officers died in the blast.

The 14th Army, a former Soviet unit caught in the middle of the Moldovan fighting for months, has tried to restrain itself, but its sympathies clearly lie with the Slavic fighters, and some reports now say it has placed itself under their command.

Snegur complained: “The 14th Army has occupied the Dniester region, and Russia has begun an undeclared war with Moldova.”

Foreign Ministry officials from Moldova, Romania, Russia and Ukraine met for a routine round of peace talks in Kishinev on Monday, and their foreign ministers were expected to meet this week in Istanbul, Turkey. But prospects did not look good for serious top-level negotiations.

Yeltsin, when asked Monday if he planned to meet soon with Snegur, said ominously that he did not but added: “We plan to take effective measures.”