12/23/2023 0 Comments Ukraine ammo stockpile![]() ![]() Its current contents – the quantity and condition of the stockpile – are known only to the Russian military and its Transnistrian allies. The depot has not been inspected by international observers for more than 15 years. However, it is unclear if the ammunition at Cobasna is still fit for use after decades of storage. The complaints of “shell hunger” have prompted speculation that both sides are eyeing up the depot as a means of re-supplying their troops in battle. Cobasna is estimated to hold some 20,000 tonnes of old Soviet ammunition. ![]() Both sides have also been relying heavily on Soviet-era weapons. This story, reported from Moldova and Ukraine, examines the credibility and context of those claims.Īfter a year of attritional war, both Russian and Ukrainian forces are warning of ammunition shortages. Cobasna has been cited in claims of geopolitical intrigue and skulduggery. Within the last six weeks, the leaders of Moldova and Transnistria have accused the Russian and Ukrainian governments respectively of plotting their overthrow. That, however, is changing as the war in Ukraine fans political turmoil in Moldova. Meanwhile, the audience – in this case, the people living in the area – have been mostly indifferent to its presence. The location of the depot – 200 kilometres from the border of a Nato member, Romania, and just two kilometres from the border of Ukraine – has guaranteed it the attention of governments and spies. The village in Transnistria, a breakaway territory of Moldova, hosts what is widely believed to be Eastern Europe’s largest ammunition depot, a relic of the Cold War secured by some 1,500 Russian troops. Hitchcock, who also offered the anecdote of the strangers on the train as an origin story for the term, described the MacGuffin as “the thing that the spies are after - but the audience doesn’t care. Famous MacGuffins include the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, its illuminated contents always hidden from the audience, as well as any number of secret documents in the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock, the director most associated with the device. It causes significant things to happen but its own significance is often unclear. The first stranger points to a package on the luggage rack – “What’s in that?” The owner of the package replies: “It’s a MacGuffin.” The first stranger asks: “What’s a MacGuffin?” “Well,” comes the reply, “it’s an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.” The first stranger objects – “But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands!” “Well then,” the owner of the package says, “that’s no MacGuffin!” In cinema, a MacGuffin refers to a narrative device – typically a mysterious, desirable object – that drives the plot forward. Two strangers on a train strike up a conversation. ![]()
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