With a population of just 2.6 million and one of the smallest economies in Europe, Moldova barely registers by most European Union metrics. Yet the small former Soviet republic wedged between EU member Romania and war-ravaged Ukraine has drawn outsized attention from the continent’s powerful democracies and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the West should admit Russia has "won" in Georgia and is on its way to doing the same in Moldova unless Western rhetoric against crossing Moscow's red lines was dropped.