If Transnistria Were Blockaded, Someone Would’ve Noticed
Why we need to be skeptical about social media "reporting" on Transnistria
Over the last 2 days I’ve gotten a lot of messages asking me about whether or not the reports of Moldova and Ukraine blockading Transnistra are true. Spoiler alert - they aren’t. Today I want to briefly run through what happened and what the takeaway should be about the current information environment around Transnistria.
The Story…
On January 12th Ukrainian English language outlet Euromaidan Press published an article that basically alleged the following:
On January 1st 2026 Moldova and Ukraine coordinated to completely close the borders with Transnistria
Russian troops are now trapped in the region and cannot go in or out
A 100% economic blockade has been imposed and no travel in or out of the region is permitted
Moldova has strengthened internal control measures, introduced strict border controls and closed land and air access to the region
Euromaidan Press claims (in their retraction and apology) that their article itself was “based on analysis from the video channel Reporting from Ukraine.”
Longtime Moldova Matters readers will probably see a few issues with the claims above. Rather than explain myself, let me quote from an excellent (if exasperated) post from Irina Tabaranu, journalist and founder of Zona de Securitate, the top outlet in Moldova for reporting on Transnistria. She writes:
“Everything presented there is nonsense. Ukraine closed its border along the perimeter of the Transnistrian region on February 28, 2022. On January 1, 2026—as stated in the article—there was nothing left to close; the border was already closed. The rotation of Russian troops has been halted since 2014 and has not been resumed.”
She went on to castigate local Moldovan news outlets for parroting this story without bothering to confirm it. Then she continues about the idea that Moldova “tightened controls” and closed the border completely writing:
“Moscow controls the peacekeeping mission on the Dniester, which has 15 military posts along the river and would have intervened if any additional post [from Moldova] had appeared or if any road had been blocked.
Cargo vehicles are circulating, people are traveling by public or private transport as usual. Where do you get such information? IT IS JANUARY 12—WOULDN’T ANYONE HAVE SPOKEN UP IF ACCESS TO AND FROM THE TRANSNISTRIAN REGION WERE BLOCKED?
You have the opportunity to see the reality on the ground with your own eyes.
Please question everything you read online and tag your friends who have reposted the false claim about the supposed “blockade” imposed by Chișinău on the Transnistrian region.
Please inform yourselves from trustworthy sources that cite real institutions and officials, with first and last names, and that refer to documents and decisions that are easy to verify. Articles on such important topics, without an author and a clear source, can only be premeditated rumors with far from honest aims..”
The all caps bit was her emphasis not mine, but it echos my own feeling when I was reading incoming message. The idea that something as seismic as a total and coordinated blockade would be unreported in Moldova for 12 days is pretty improbable - right? Like, at least one of the 20,000 Transnistrians who come to work in Moldova every day would have mentioned something? or the untold number of others who come shopping? or the HUGE number of people from both sides traveling back and forth for the holidays?
In any case, rest assured that if Moldova and Ukraine start a war of sorts with Transnistria I’ll write about it in a timeline faster than 12 days.
All of that said…
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on…
This story flew. One X post I found had more than 547,000 views, 2,100 reshares and 270+ comments. It sported a community note explaining the retraction, but that hardly mattered to the many people who ran with it further. Ukrainian English language outlet1 United24 also wrote up the story and did not follow the retraction - meaning that posts about their story are still spreading without those semi-helpful community notes.
The original video that Euromaidan based their article on remains on youtube and has more than 480,000 views at the time of writing.
We’ve seen this situation before and we need to see the pattern that’s emerging.
Moscow Wants Transnistria in the News
In the English language press specifically. Recall, in December Ukrinform wrote an article about how Transnistria was preparing for war - and at Moldova Matters we wrote how that wasn’t true. Back in March 2024 a much bigger news cycle broke into just about every English language outlet from CNN to the NY Times to the Guardian to CNBC. It was also completely untrue as we wrote at the time.
I don’t want to cast dispersions on Euromaidan news - they did a good job with a quick correction. They even quoted Moldova Matters as saying “that sensationalized reports about Transnistria have previously been planted to ‘inspire panic in newsrooms that are not well informed about Moldovan affairs.’”
So they admitted that they got rolled and promised that they are reviewing their editorial process. No such luck from Ukrinform, United24 or another of the influencers I saw running the with the story.
The problem here is that there is an improbable alignment between Ukrainian patriots (and outside supporters) and the Kremlin here. Hardline, especially really-online (aka NAFO), Ukraine supporters cheerlead a tough line on Transnistria. Meanwhile, the Kremlin sees Transnistria as an invaluable security asset with the primary goal of keeping Moldova out of the EU. Messaging is key here - if they can make Moldova look unstable or like a security threat to the rest of the EU then they are undermining Moldova’s EU accession.
For every one NAFO bro who cheers war with Transnistria tens of thousands of citizens in Spain and France will just say “Moldova really seems like too much trouble right?” The goal is to make Moldova seem unsafe and out of control of its own territory - and the people spreading these fake stories play right into this game.
I wrote about the security situation in detail before the new year:
A Simple Rule of Thumb…
When you’re wondering about a sensational story spreading around the internet about Moldova I would use these basic rules:
Did it originate in local Moldovan press?
Is that source trustworthy?
Any story being printed by an outlet in Kyiv or Washington or anywhere else that claims to have bombshell information about Moldova from 2 weeks ago better be backed up with a 2 week media storm in Moldova about said bombshell. I don’t know of a single case where a news outlet outside of Moldova got a big Moldova story before the local press. So when in doubt - check ZdG, Zona de Securitate, Newsmaker, Agora, TV8 or one of the many other amazing local news outlets.
Outlet does not equal news / journalism here. United24 is more of a strategic communications outlet in sync with the Ukrainian government.
Bravo!Thank you...