Although EU candidacy for Ukraine and Moldova has been hailed as historic, frustrations among other candidates years into their own membership bids should serve as a reminder that the path ahead won't be easy.

Moldova relies heavily on Russia and Ukraine for energy and has been badly hit by Russia's invasion of its eastern neighbor. In this interview, Moldovan PM Natalia Gavrilita explains the challenges her country faces.

Mathias von Tucher is in charge of Moldova's only international port: Giurgiuleşti. The inland port has been a strategic lifeline for Ukraine during the war. So is Moldova under threat from Russia as a result?

The government in Chisinau has fallen after a year and a half in office, amid inflation and energy security concerns. The war in neighboring Ukraine has also taken its toll on the small nation.

According to the Moldovan leader, Russia planned to use foreign saboteurs to overthrow the small, eastern European country's leadership and prevent it from joining the European Union.

An international soccer match in Moldova will be played in an empty stadium amid concerns over an alleged Russian plot to overthrow the government.

The parliament in the front line state voted in a new, pro-Western government with Prime Minister Dorin Recean at the helm. Last week, the former prime minister resigned citing a dearth of support within her own party.

Moldova's foreign minister told DW he believes "corrupt oligarchs" are working "shoulder to shoulder" with Russia to destabilize his country. Nicu Popescu called for the European Union to sanction those accused.

Western support for Moldova is growing as the country rejects Russian political meddling. While it may be small, Ukraine’s western neighbor is of strategic importance in the war.

Police in Moldova say they have arrested members of a Moscow-orchestrated network that was seeking to destabilize the former Soviet country.

In a interview with FRANCE 24, Moldova's minister of internal affairs said that Moscow was attempting to "reinstall a pro-Russian government" in Moldova, and that "Russian interest groups" and "fugitive oligarchs" were behind recent protests calling for the resignation of the pro-Western President Maia Sandu.

In the past few months, Moldova – a small country located between Romania and Ukraine – has seen a wave of protests against its pro-European government. The country's authorities accuse Russia of using hybrid warfare to destabilise Moldova. They regularly manage to infiltrate groups thought to be taking orders from the Kremlin. Ilan Shor, a Moldovan oligarch now living in exile in Israel, is at the head of one of these movements.