UPDATE - Moldova's breakaway Transnistria claims it foiled Ukraine’s attack on leadership

UPDATES WITH RESPONSE FROM UKRAINE'S SECURITY SERVICE

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region on Thursday accused Ukraine of carrying out an attack on its leadership and said that the attack has been thwarted.

“The crime, on the directives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was prepared against a number of officials,” said a statement by the breakaway region's State Security Ministry.

It said that the suspects of the alleged attack were detained and that an investigation has been launched.

Separately, Transnistria’s prosecutor Anatoliy Guretskiy claimed that the alleged attack aimed to take out the leadership of Transnistria.

"The place where the attack was supposed to take place indicates that the calculation was, firstly, to eliminate the first persons of the state. In addition, no less, the calculation was for a large number of victims,” Guretskiy claimed.

Meanwhile, the SBU denied its involvement in the alleged attack and declared the claims as "nonsense", saying that its dissemination shows "a clear goal of Russia to destabilize the situation in the territory that is actually occupied and under its control."

"Any statements by representatives of the so-called 'Ministry of State Security' of the fake 'Pridnestrovian People's Republic' regarding the participation of the SBU in the preparation of the terrorist attack should be considered exclusively as a provocation orchestrated by the Kremlin," a statement by the SBU said.

Transnistria is an unrecognized breakaway region internationally recognized as part of Moldova but is currently controlled by pro-Russian separatists.