“Today we congratulate Moldova. In the elections, the idea of Europe won – the idea of normal and stable national development,” said the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his video address to the Warsaw Security Forum.

According to Zelenskyy, Russia’s attempts to destabilize Moldova through subversive influence and bribery have failed.

“Today, we congratulate Moldova. In the elections, the idea of Europe won – the idea of normal and stable national development. Russia’s subversive influence will not spread farther into Europe. And I spoke today in the morning with Maia Sandu; I congratulated her. Russia failed to destabilize Moldova, even after spending huge, huge resources to undermine it and to corrupt whoever they could. What matters is that this election victory happened without decoupling. Ukraine was absolutely right about this, and I thank Poland, first of all, for its support. It’s important too that a former oligarch, who kept that country and our whole region in the shadows of dirty schemes, was finally extradited to Moldova. This act of justice and European cooperation matters not only for Moldova but for everyone in Europe. Because anyone who works against their own nation must one day be held accountable. This applies to everyone who chooses war and sides with Russia – from oligarchs and politicians to any other collaborators with Moscow.

And we can see how different this is from Georgia. Today, Georgia is in many ways lost to Europe. Maybe one day it will return, but for that, Europe must not close its eyes to what is happening there – and in Belarus. Every gain for Russia in our region is always a loss for Europe. That is why we cannot afford to lose a single day or a single country,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy underlined the need for continued support for Moldova after the elections, emphasizing that the most difficult task ahead is to meet the expectations of voters.

“Europe can and must help Moldova in this – based on our common interests,” Zelenskyy added.

As a reminder, Zelenskyy made a similar statement on September 24 at the UN General Assembly, where he said: “We have already lost Georgia in Europe. Human Rights and the European nature and the state system are only shrinking there. Georgia depends on Russia, and for many years, Belarus has also been moving towards dependence on Russia. Europe cannot afford to lose Moldova.”