00:00This is the ferry to Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway region on the eastern bank of the
00:05Denista River in Moldova.
00:08For the five Moldovan-administered villages in Transnistria, this ferry is the only link
00:13to the rest of Moldova.
00:15Although situated entirely within Transnistria, these villages have remained under the authority
00:20of Moldova's central government in Chisinau since the end of the Transnistrian War in
00:241992.
00:26The ferry, which runs several times a day, is a lifeline for the villagers, who often
00:31feel forgotten in a kind of no-man's land.
00:34Sixty-nine-year-old Georgi Kolun lives in the village of Kochieri, one of the five Moldovan-administered
00:39enclaves.
00:40Kolun is taking us in his old Soviet-made Lada to Vasilyevka, another Moldovan-run village
00:4720 kilometres away and very close to the Ukrainian border.
00:50He says that hardly any journalists have been there in recent years.
00:55Vasilyevka has a population of about 100.
00:57Most of the villagers are elderly and have remained loyal to the government in Chisinau
01:02for the past three and a half decades.
01:04The road is rough, full of potholes and dirt.
01:08The streets are deserted except for a small gaggle of geese.
01:12There are a number of empty, dilapidated houses.
01:16Time has stood still here.
01:19Agafia has lived in Vasilyevka her entire life.
01:23Despite this summer's long drought, the tomatoes in her garden are ripe.
01:27He is preserving them for the winter.
01:30They are so happy here.
01:32We are a small village, we are only in Moldova, we are transnistria in the middle of the river.
01:41I was thinking to help us with some parts, even if we have been Moldovi, as we have been.
01:47They don't help us, they don't give us anything.
01:50You live, you work, you can live, you don't give us anything.
01:56There is no school in Vasilyevka.
01:59There is no town hall either.
02:01Not even a grocery store.
02:03Just a small medical practice.
02:06Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,
02:10locals often shopped in Ukraine.
02:12Since the invasion, this has no longer been possible.
02:16Among other things, Ukraine has dug trenches along the border
02:19to halt a possible Russian advance via Transnistria.
02:22This means that to buy something as straightforward as a loaf of bread,
02:26villagers have to travel elsewhere in Transnistria.
02:29For larger purchases, they have to make a 40-kilometre round trip
02:33that includes a ferry crossing to Moldovan-controlled territory on the other side of the river.
02:38Like Agafia, the rest of the villagers survive on agriculture.
02:42Growing vegetables and keeping livestock.
02:45I would say that we have to have good relationships.
02:48If you live well with all of them,
02:50you have to have a Moldova.
02:55We have to have a Moldova.
02:56We have to have a Moldova.
02:59We have to have a Moldova.
03:01We have to have a Moldova, Moldova, Moldova, Moldova.
03:06Life in Cocieri, which is slightly larger than Vasilyevka and closer to Kisinau,
03:12is a little better.
03:13Georg Colun says that the situation in the region has always been tense
03:17and that people hope for more support from the Moldovan authorities.
03:21And so, we will see how many events do happen in the Kisinaéæź”.
03:25Sometimes we will have to live in a Moldova,
03:25and that people don't know how many events are happening.
03:30These events actually happen in Ukraine,
03:35the Ucranian army.
03:38Because here are the troops,
03:43the contingent of the Russian army,
03:46which is in the terrasp.
03:49And when the army are armed,
03:53the army is armed,
03:55and the war,
03:58and the war,
04:00It's a situation that is a very bad situation.
04:09Despite numerous rounds of negotiations between Moldova, Transnistria and Russia, the situation
04:15in Transnistria has remained unchanged and frozen in time for over 30 years.
04:20According to Ion Manole, director of the Chisinau-based Promolets, an association that promotes human
04:26rights and democracy, Tiraspol, the capital of the breakaway region, is not interested
04:32in helping people in these villages.
04:34The Lataraspol regime does not want to protect these localities, because they are in large
04:40part populated by Moldova ethnicities, respectively these ethnicities must be asimilated, they
04:49must be brought to Dubasari or the Lataraspol, or they must not be represented in the region.
04:56So this would be the purpose of the regime, to disappear these localities, which are exactly
05:01in the middle of the Transnistria region.
05:03Gheorghe Colun is convinced that the only way to resolve the conflict is for Moldova to join
05:08the European Union, which he hopes will happen one day.
05:13I do not see another course, and a part of the world does not see it, because there is a
05:23democratic democracy, and the citizens are free and protected.
05:36This is the future of Moldova.
05:40The future of Moldova is not coming back.
05:45Although any decisions about their future will be made far away, the residents of these
05:50Moldovan-administered enclaves in Transnistria have no choice but to carry on with their lives.
05:56As war rages across the border in Ukraine, they cling to the hope that a better future
06:00lies ahead, and that history will eventually side with them.
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