Moldovan President Maia Sandu said she would vote to reunify with Romania if the issue ever goes to a referendum, saying it was becoming harder for her country to “survive” on its own. 

With a population of about 2.4 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has become a target for Russian hybrid warfare, including disinformation and election manipulation.  

“If we have a referendum, I would vote for the unification with Romania,” Sandu, who leads the pro-European government in Chișinău, told British podcast The Rest is Politics.

“Look at what’s happening around Moldova today. Look at what’s happening in the world,” she explained. “It is getting more and more difficult for a small country like Moldova to survive as a democracy, as a sovereign country, and of course to resist Russia.” 

Moldova was part of Romania from 1918 until 1940, when it was annexed by the USSR, before declaring independence in 1991 after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

At a referendum in 2024, a narrow majority of Moldovans — 50.4 percent — voted in favor of EU membership in a vote marred by Russian interference. Sandu won reelection as president in a parallel vote with around 55 percent of the vote, defeating her pro-Russian opponent. 

Despite voicing her personal support, Sandu added that she accepted the idea of reunification with Romania was not supported by a majority in Moldova — unlike joining the EU, which the country applied to do in 2022, and which she called a “more realistic objective.” 

Polls show around two-thirds of Moldovans oppose reunification, while support is traditionally higher in Romania.