Moldova must join the European Union to survive Russia’s aggression, President Maia Sandu warned Tuesday.

The Eastern European country of 2.4 million people, which shares a 1,200 kilometer border with Ukraine, has become a target for Russian hybrid warfare, including disinformation, cyberattacks and election manipulation.

“That is why our European path is not just a matter of values, it is a matter of survival,” Sandu declared in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, adding the Kremlin “has unleashed its full arsenal of hybrid attacks against us.”

“We face an unlimited hybrid war on a scale unseen before the full invasion of Ukraine,” she said, calling Russia “the greatest threat we face.”

Moldovans will head to the polls on Sept. 28 for a parliamentary election, which Sandu predicted the Kremlin would try to sway.

Last year’s referendum on EU membership passed by a wafer-thin margin of 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent in a vote marred by Russian interference. In a simultaneous nail-biter presidential election, Sandu — who hails from a pro-European party — defeated her pro-Russian opponent to secure a second term.

Moscow’s “goal is clear,” Sandu said. “To capture Moldova through the ballot box, to use us against Ukraine, and to turn us into a launchpad for hybrid attacks on the European Union.”

Moldova applied to join the EU in 2022 and has undertaken far-reaching reforms to its government, judiciary and economy. But Sandu said the EU should not expect “perfection” from the country before allowing it to advance toward membership of the bloc.

“We are not asking for shortcuts. We are doing our homework diligently,” she said, but added Moldova was in “a race against time” to protect its democracy from Russia.

The leaders of France, Germany and Poland visited Chișinău last month in a flashy show of support for Sandu and pledged their support for the country’s EU path.

But Moldova faces obstacles, including the fact that its accession is currently tied to Ukraine’s, which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has repeatedly vowed to block.