The armed conflict lasted from 2 March to 21 July 1992, in three areas along the Dniester river. The start date of the conflict, 2 March 1992, was the same day when Moldova was admitted as a member of the United Nations, i.e. got full international recognition of its August 27, 1991 declaration of independence.
The first fatalities in the emerging conflict took place on 2 November 1990, on the two-month anniversary of the PMR's 2 September 1990 declaration of independence. News agency New Region reported that Moldovan forces entered Dubăsari in order to separate Transnistria in two halves. They were stopped by the city's inhabitants who had blocked the bridge over Dniester, at Lunga village near Dubăsari and Moldovan forces opened fire in their attempt to proceed over the bridge.[19] In the course of the confrontation, three Dubăsari locals, Oleg Geletiuk, Vladimir Gotkas and Valerie Mitsuls, were killed by the Moldovan forces and sixteen people wounded.[4]
A second Moldovan attempt to cross the Lunga bridge took place on 13 December 1991. As a result of the fighting, 27 PMR troops were taken prisoner and 4 Moldovan troops (Ghenadie Iablocikin, Gheorghe Caşu, Valentin Mereniuk and Mihai Arnăut) were killed,[20] without Moldova being able to cross the bridge. After this second failed attempt, there was a lull in military activity until 2 March 1992, considered the official start date of the War of Transnistria.
Cocieri-Dubăsari area
The first area of military action was on the left shore of the Dniester river, from north to south, the villages of Molovata Nouă, Cocieri (approx 6,000 inhabitants), Corjova and the city of Dubăsari (approx 30,000 inhabitants), together forming a contiguous mainly inhabited area 10–12 km along the shore. The only connection to the right bank from the three villages is either a ferry, or two bridges in Dubăsari.
On 1 March 1992 Igor Shipcenko, the PMR militia chief of Dubăsari, was killed by a teenager and Moldovan police were accused of the killing. Although minor, this incident was a sufficient spark for the already very tense situation to blow up and the events succeeded in a cascade.
In response, the Cossacks who came from Rostov-on-Don to support the PMR side stormed the police precinct in Dubăsari during the night. Moldovan president Mircea Snegur, afraid of starting an armed conflict, ordered the 26 policemen to surrender to the attacking Cossacks and PMR forces. They were later exchanged for Lieutenant-General Yakovlev. Moldovan policemen loyal to Chişinău from the Dubăsari raion (district), instead of returning to work in the occupied precinct in Dubăsari, now a milice precinct, gathered in Cocieri.
On 2 March 1992, locals from Cocieri, after hearing about the situation in Dubăsari, broke into the small local arms depot to arm themselves against the PMR side. 3 locals (Alexandru Luchianov from Cocieri, Alexandru Gazea from Molovata and Mihai Nour from Roghi) were killed, but the military unit from Cocieri was defeated by the Moldovans. The officers and their families were forced to leave the village.[21] More policemen were ferried the following days from the right bank of the Dniester. They organized a defense line around the three villages, while PMR forces retained control of Dubăsari. In the following weeks both PMR and Moldovan forces amassed large numbers in the area and fought a trench war, with intermittent ceasefires.
Coşniţa areaA similar development occurred on March 13 in the villages of Coşniţa, Pîrîta, Pohrebea and Doroţcaia. A second "bridge-head" was formed on the left bank, now south of Dubăsari.
In April Russian vice-president Alexander Rutskoy visited Transnistria and expressed the full support of Transnistrian separatists by Russia.
Bendery areaA ceasefire was in negotiation during June in the Bendery area. However, the full scale conflict re-erupted after regular Moldovan forces entered the city of Bendery in an attempt to reestablish the authority of Moldova there. It has been reported that this action was a response to the stand-off at the police station in Bendery on 19 June 1992. On the afternoon of that day, the Moldovan police in Bendery arrested the 14th Army's Major Yermakov on suspicion of a planned subversion. After his arrest, PMR guards opened fire on the police station. The Moldovan government ordered its troops to enter the city the following morning. Urban warfare ensued between the two sides in the densely populated city. In the course of combat actions in Bendery there were casualties among civilian population.
The news of the havoc in Bendery reached Tiraspol, only 11 km away, as Moldovan troops were approaching the crucial bridge over the Dniester. At this point, having the support of ROG's tanks, the Transnistrian Republican Guard and Cossack volunteers rushed to confront the Moldovan forces. The Vice-President Rutskoy of the Russian Federation, in a speech delivered on the main channel of the Russian (former Soviet) television, called for all Russian forces in Tiraspol to storm Bendery. In the course of the following days, parts of the city of Bendery, including the center, were retaken by PMR forces.
Ceasefire and Joint Control CommissionA ceasefire agreement was signed on 21 July. This official document whose broad lines was established by the Russian side, was signed by the presidents of Russia (Boris Yeltsin) and Moldova (Mircea Snegur). The agreement provided for peacekeeping forces charged with ensuring observance of the ceasefire and security arrangements, composed of five Russian battalions, three Moldovan battalions and two PMR battalions under the orders of a joint military command structure, the Joint Control Commission (JCC).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Transnistria