Watching the war in Ukraine, many in the U.S. and elsewhere are hearing for the first time the name of another country, Moldova. But few in the West know much about it, where it is and what its place is in the geopolitics of Europe.
Despite the visibility that the Baltic states receive in the media as possible targets in Vladimir Putin’s war, the most likely next victim in the path of the Russian army is Moldova, a small country of about 3 million people to the west of Ukraine. When the Belarusian president addressed his security council, the map behind him showed planned troop movements that clearly included Moldova as the only non-Ukrainian target.
As a Moldovan American scientist, my heart breaks at the thought of Moldova becoming the next war-torn territory in Europe.
