S3 - 1 Border Incursion

S3 - 2 Border Incursion At 0730 on a Saturday morning, police officials in Tiraspol report the following to central government officials: 5 vehicles from the Ukraine crossed through a Moldovan border post on the road from Odessa to Tiraspol. Barriers were knocked over and shots exchanged between the border police and people in the vehicles. According to border police reports, a large German-made car (probably a BMW) carrying four passengers raced through the Ukrainian border post without stopping and was fired upon by Ukrainian border guards. It proceeded to crash through the Moldovan border post and raced onward. Less than a minute later, 4 official Ukrainian vehicles passed through both countries’ border posts in pursuit.

S3 - 3 Border Incursion (Cont) One of the Ukrainian vehicles struck and seriously injured a Moldovan border guard. Border police radioed the incident to police in Tiraspol, and one border post vehicle joined in pursuit but was unable to find any fleeing vehicles. At 0630 (first light), the fleeing BMW was found. It had struck a tree and the driver was dead. No other passengers were found. There was no information available on the four Ukrainian official vehicles. A farmer in the area who had found the vehicle told police that he had seen car lights crossing a field.

S3 - 4 Border Incursion (Cont) Ukrainian border officials would make no comments to their counterparts about the incident. Media questioning about the incident began by mid- morning in Chisnau.